Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Evolution
Segmentation, body symmetry and the organization of the central nervous system in echinoderms
Published: 2020-07-26
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
The organization of the echinoderm central nervous system (CNS) is striking because it varies widely from that of other bilaterians; however, the basis for this is unknown. In the present paper, I identify echinoderms as compound and I show that this is the basis for their radial symmetry and the organization of their CNS. The asteroids, as I show, comprise of bilaterally symmetrical zooids [...]
Historical comparisons show evolutionary changes in drought responses in European plant species after two decades of climate change
Published: 2020-07-22
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Plant populations must continuously adapt to ongoing global climate change, including warmer temperatures and more extreme weather events. One way to detect such evolutionary changes within plant populations is through historical comparisons where plants grown from seeds collected in the past (“ancestors”) are compared to freshly collected seeds from the same populations (“descendants”) in common [...]
The Diverse Applications of Tree Set Visualization and Exploration
Published: 2020-07-18
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
All phylogenetic studies are built around sets of trees. Tree sets carry different kinds of information depending on the data and approaches used to generate them, but ultimately the variation they contain and their structure is what drives new phylogenetic insights. In order to better understand the variation in and structure of phylogenetic tree sets, we need tools that are generic, flexible, [...]
New approaches for inferring phylogenies in the presence of paralogs
Published: 2020-07-08
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
The availability of whole genome sequences was expected to supply essentially unlimited data for phylogenetics. However, strict reliance on single-copy genes for this purpose has drastically limited the amount of data that can be used. Here, we review several approaches for increasing the amount of data used for phylogenetic inference, focusing on methods that allow for the inclusion of [...]
Life in fluctuating environments
Published: 2020-07-04
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Variability in the environment defines the structure and dynamics of all living systems. Organisms have evolved traits and strategies that allow them to detect, exploit and predict the changing environment. Organisms maintain steady internal conditions required for physiological functioning through feedback mechanisms that allow internal conditions to remain at or near a set point despite a [...]
Fossil Constraints on the Timescale of Parasitic Helminth Evolution
Published: 2020-06-30
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
The fossil record of parasitic helminths is often stated to be severely limited. Many studies have therefore used host constraints to constrain molecular divergence time estimates of helminths. Here we review direct fossil evidence for several of these parasitic lineages belong to various phyla (Acanthocephala, Annelida, Arthropoda, Nematoda, Nematomorpha, Pentastomida, Platyhelminthes). Our [...]
Climate change as a catalyst of social evolution
Published: 2020-05-09
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Anthropogenic climatic change will be a major factor shaping natural populations over the foreseeable future. The scope of this issue has spawned the integrative field of global change biology, which is chiefly concerned with identifying vulnerabilities of natural systems to climate change and integrating these into models of biodiversity loss. Meanwhile, there remains considerable latitude for [...]
Mapping the past, present and future research landscape of paternal effects
Published: 2020-05-08
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Other Medicine and Health Sciences, Physiology
Although in all sexually reproducing organisms, an individual has a mother and a father, non-genetic inheritance has been predominantly studied in mothers. Paternal effects have been far less frequently studied, until recently. In the last five years, research on environmentally induced paternal effects has grown rapidly in the number of publications and diversity of topics. Motivations for [...]
Understanding Non-genetic Inheritance: Insights from Molecular-Evolutionary Crosstalk
Published: 2020-05-02
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Understanding the evolutionary and ecological roles of non-genetic inheritance is daunting due to the complexity and diversity of epigenetic mechanisms. We draw on precise insights from molecular structures and events to identify three general features of non-genetic inheritance systems that are central to broader investigations: (i) they are functionally interdependent with, rather than separate [...]
Interpopulation differences in developmental plasticity of carnivores determine the emergence of a trophic interaction
Published: 2020-04-16
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Population Biology
1. Through its influence on trait expression, phenotypic plasticity can shape variation in strengths of interspecific interactions across environmental gradients. If species exhibit interpopulation differences in phenotypic plasticity, their genotypes and environmental conditions may jointly determine the strength of interspecific interactions. 2. To examine this prediction, we experimentally [...]
The genomic revolution and species delimitation in birds (and other organisms): gene flow matters, but what about other evolutionary forces?
Published: 2020-04-10
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics and Genomics, Genomics, Life Sciences
Given the notion that species are population-level lineages and the availability of genomic data to identify separately evolving populations, researchers usually establish species limits based on gene flow or lack thereof. A strict focus on gene flow as the main –or only– criterion to delimit species involves two main complications in practice. First, approaches often used to apply this criterion [...]
Evolutionary consequences of epigenetically induced phenotypic switching
Published: 2020-04-01
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
In this book chapter, we discuss the importance of phenotypic switching with respect to adaptation. Hereby, we focus on epigenetic mechanisms of phenotypic switching that are involved in gene expression regulation. We start by placing the discovery of phenotypic switching in the context of the history of evolutionary biology. We highlight how the controversy about whether phenotypic switching can [...]
Epicuticular compounds of Protopiophila litigata (Diptera: Piophilidae): identification and sexual selection across two years in the wild
Published: 2020-03-18
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Evolution, Life Sciences
The epicuticular compounds (ECs) of insects serve both to waterproof the cuticle and, in many taxa, as pheromones that are important for various social interactions including mate choice within populations. However, ECs have not been individually identified in many species and most studies of their role in mate choice have been performed in a laboratory setting. Here we newly identify and [...]
Pre-maturation social experience affects female reproductive strategies and offspring fitness in a highly polyandrous insect
Published: 2020-03-18
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
The pre-maturation social environment experienced by females may affect their post-maturation reproductive strategies, including mating preferences and investment in offspring. Whether the pre-maturation social environment also affects other aspects of females’ reproductive strategies, such as the degree of polyandry and post-copulatory decisions, is still an open question. To address this [...]
Development time mediates the effect of larval diet on ageing and mating success of male antler flies in the wild
Published: 2020-03-17
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Population Biology
High-quality developmental environments often improve individual performance into adulthood, but allocating toward early-life traits, such as growth, development rate, and reproduction, may lead to trade-offs with late life performance. It is therefore uncertain how a rich developmental environment will affect the ageing process (senescence), particularly in wild insects. To investigate the [...]