Editorial Material
Ecology
Lynn Govaert, Florian Altermatt, Luc De Meester, Mathew A. Leibold, Mark A. McPeek, Jelena H. Pantel, Mark C. Urban
Summary: Recent studies show that ecological and evolutionary processes can often interact; however, our understanding of evolution in multi-species communities is still lacking; focusing on interactions between evolutionary biology and community ecology processes can explore eco-evolutionary dynamics in multi-species communities.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Sebastien Lion, Akira Sasaki, Mike Boots
Summary: Understanding the interaction between ecological processes and evolutionary dynamics of quantitative traits in natural systems is a challenge. Two main theoretical frameworks, adaptive dynamics and quantitative genetics, have strengths and limitations and are used by different research communities. To make progress, a novel theoretical framework called 'oligomorphic dynamics' is proposed to bridge the gap between these approaches and strengthen the link to empirical data. Oligomorphic dynamics considers environmental feedback and can analyze eco-evolutionary dynamics, including multimodal trait distributions and non-normal or skewed distributions encountered in nature, facilitating a tighter integration between theory and data.
Review
Ecology
Jelena H. Pantel, Lutz Becks
Summary: While the reciprocal effects of ecological and evolutionary dynamics on biodiversity are recognized as important, detecting and understanding these feedbacks remains challenging due to their occurrence at different scales and levels of organization. Recent advances in statistical methods and hypothesis testing provide a promising approach to identifying eco-evolutionary drivers even in non-model systems. This literature review discusses these advances and the challenges of fitting mechanistic models to eco-evolutionary data.
TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Mark Davidson Jewell, Graham Bell
Summary: When the environment changes, the entire community of organisms may undergo modifications through physiological processes, evolutionary processes, or shifts in species composition. However, how these sources of change combine to drive community trait dynamics is not well understood.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Laura S. Zamorano, Zachariah Gompert, Emanuel A. Fronhofer, Jeffrey L. Feder, Patrik Nosil
Summary: There is increasing evidence that evolution and ecology can operate on the same time-scale, with evolution influencing ecological processes and vice versa. However, direct empirical evidence for eco-evolutionary feedback is rare. This study shows in the wild that a plant-feeding arthropod community exhibits a negative feedback loop between adaptation in cryptic coloration, bird predation, and arthropod abundance, suggesting that eco-evolutionary feedbacks can stabilize complex systems.
Review
Environmental Sciences
Joost Samir Mansour, Konstantinos Anestis
Summary: Mixotrophy, characterized by the combination of phototrophy and phagotrophy within a single organism, is a significant trophic mode in aquatic ecosystems. The establishment of permanent plastids in mixoplankton is largely due to gene transfer from prey and/or endosymbionts, with active transcription of plastid-related genes helping to maintain and extend retention of kleptoplasts. Response of mixoplankton to environmental changes like temperature, nutrient availability, and prey abundance is variable and species-specific.
FRONTIERS IN MARINE SCIENCE
(2021)
Editorial Material
Ecology
Fernanda Santos, Joseph K. Bailey, Jennifer A. Schweitzer
Summary: Fire is a natural process that plays a significant role in ecological and evolutionary dynamics. This article synthesizes contributions to a Special Feature on fire as a dynamic force and provides a broader context for fire research. The topics covered include the impacts of novel fire regimes on forest mortality, vegetation-fire feedbacks and resulting plant syndromes, fire impacts on plant-fungal interactions, and arthropod community responses to fire. The article concludes by suggesting pathways to further understand the ecological and evolutionary consequences of fire.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Jong Im Kim, Bok Yeon Jo, Myung Gil Park, Yeong Du Yoo, Woongghi Shin, John M. Archibald
Summary: The Raphidophyceae is an important lineage of eukaryotic organisms that play a crucial role in marine and freshwater ecosystems. By sequencing and analyzing the plastid genomes of several species, researchers have gained insights into the evolutionary history of raphidophycean plastids. The findings suggest that lateral gene transfer from diatoms has contributed to the genetic diversity and evolution of raphidophyte plastid genomes.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2022)
Editorial Material
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Andrew P. Hendry
Summary: Ecological change and evolution have a feedback mechanism where ecological change influences evolution, and in turn, evolution affects ecological change. A study using Timema stick insects demonstrates the existence of such feedbacks in nature, showing that they can occur rapidly, have a strong impact, and contribute to stability.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Anne-Kathleen Malchow, Greta Bocedi, Stephen C. F. Palmer, Justin M. J. Travis, Damaris Zurell
Summary: Reliably modeling species responses to environmental changes is crucial for conservation and management planning. Process-based and individual-based models are valuable tools for this purpose. RangeShiftR is a flexible individual-based modeling platform implemented in R, offering fast simulations and additional functions for model analysis.
Review
Ecology
Masato Yamamichi, Andrew D. Letten, Sebastian J. Schreiber
Summary: Growing evidence suggests that temporally fluctuating environments play a crucial role in maintaining variation within and between species. However, studies of genetic variation within populations have been primarily conducted by evolutionary biologists, while population and community ecologists have focused more on species diversity. This article reviews theoretical and empirical studies in population genetics and community ecology, exploring the connection between the "temporal storage effect" and diversity maintenance. By comparing and synthesizing ecological and evolutionary approaches, the authors aim to enhance our understanding of diversity maintenance in nature.
Article
Ecology
Masato Yamamichi, Theo Gibbs, Jonathan M. Levine
Summary: This study suggests that rapid evolution occurring concurrently with competition may enable species coexistence. The authors extend the interpretation of modern coexistence theory metrics to systems where competitors evolve, defining eco-evolutionary versions of these metrics. They find that the eco-evolutionary niche and competitive ability differences are a combination of ecological and evolutionary processes, accurately predicting the potential for stable coexistence in eco-evolutionary dynamics.
Article
Ecology
Pavithra Anantharaman Sudhakari, Bhaskar Chandra Mohan Ramisetty
Summary: This study investigates the accumulation of prophage elements in bacterial genomes and analyzes the associated environmental factors. The results indicate that most prophages are relics of past bacteria-phage conflicts, and their distribution within bacterial genomes is random with extensive horizontal transfers.
Review
Microbiology
Nikola Zlatkov, Aftab Nadeem, Bernt Eric Uhlin, Sun Nyunt Wai
Summary: Bacterial membrane vesicles (BMVs) are extracellular organelles that play a crucial role in bacterial eco-evolutionary dynamics by delivering cargo in a protected and concentrated manner. They contribute to ecosystem stability and can help delay negative effects of evolutionary trade-offs, benefiting both bacterial populations and the ecosystem as a whole.
FEMS MICROBIOLOGY REVIEWS
(2021)
Article
Biology
Zachary T. Wood, Eric P. Palkovacs, Brian J. Olsen, Michael T. Kinnison
Summary: Humans are dominant global drivers of ecological and evolutionary change, affecting the reshaping of ecosystems and natural selection. Human activities play a crucial role in shaping eco-evolutionary potential, influencing the stability and resilience of populations, communities, and ecosystems. Proper management of anthropogenic effects requires a science of human effects on eco-evolutionary potential.
Article
Ecology
Andrew J. Black, Pierrick Bourrat, Paul B. Rainey
NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2020)
Article
Biology
Steven D. Quistad, Guilhem Doulcier, Paul B. Rainey
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2020)
Article
Ecology
Zhang Xue-Xian, Stephen R. Ritchie, Chang Hao, Dawn L. Arnold, Robert W. Jackson, Paul B. Rainey
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2020)
Article
Ecology
Caroline J. Rose, Katrin Hammerschmidt, Yuriy Pichugin, Paul B. Rainey
Article
Biology
Guilhem Doulcier, Amaury Lambert, Silvia De Monte, Paul B. Rainey
Article
Biology
Bram van Dijk, Frederic Bertels, Lianne Stolk, Nobuto Takeuchi, Paul B. Rainey
Summary: TEs are believed to drive genome expansion in eukaryotes, but prokaryotes have streamlined genomes. Using a simulation model, this study found that TEs can promote genome streamlining by local interactions and rock-paper-scissors dynamics. Streamlining is maladaptive to individual cells, but hinders TE proliferation and improves lineage viability.
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Biology
Pierrick Bourrat, Guilhem Doulcier, Caroline J. Rose, Paul B. Rainey, Katrin Hammerschmidt
Summary: Evolutionary transitions in individuality involve the formation of collectives from particles, with collectives becoming units of selection. This article explores the fitness decoupling phenomenon and tradeoff-breaking events in these transitions. The results show that fitness of particles and collectives cannot decouple, and a focus on traits and tradeoffs is an effective approach to understanding the dynamics of these transitions.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Frederic Bertels, Paul B. Rainey
Summary: This study focuses on REPEN, a class of mobile genetic elements (MGEs) that propagate within bacterial genomes. Unlike other MGEs, REPENs can persist for millions of years within individual lineages and form beneficial associations with host genomes. The study reveals the complex interactions between REPENs and host genomes, providing a new perspective on our understanding of MGEs.
Article
Biology
Paul B. Rainey
Summary: This article argues that future evolutionary transitions in individuality (ETIs) involving symbioses between humans and artificial intelligence (AI) are feasible, while transitions to eusociality seem unlikely. The key is to ensure fitness-affecting interactions between humans and AI devices are inherited by offspring, which can be achieved through algorithm transfer and societal structures. The article also raises concerns about the potential for malevolent manipulation.
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Microbiology
Carsten Fortmann-Grote, Eric Hugoson, Joanna Summers, Loukas Theodosiou, Paul B. Rainey
Summary: We present a genome update for Pseudomonas fluorescens isolate SBW25, based on PacBio long-read sequence data. The updated assembly reveals three minor differences compared to the previously published genome sequence. Original annotations were merged with recent automated annotations to preserve information.
MICROBIOLOGY RESOURCE ANNOUNCEMENTS
(2023)
Article
Biology
Matthew C. Nitschke, Andrew J. Black, Pierrick Bourrat, Paul B. Rainey
Summary: Previous work has found that a minimal ecological structure involving patchily distributed resources and recurrent dispersal between patches can introduce Darwinian properties to collections of cells. The introduction of a bottleneck during dispersal, causing patches to be founded by single cells, decreases competition within patches and leads to a strong hereditary link at the patch level. A fully stochastic model was constructed to show that larger bottlenecks slow down the evolutionary dynamics, but at a certain point, the direction of evolution reverses, which can be counteracted by introducing random fluctuations in bottleneck sizes.
JOURNAL OF THEORETICAL BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Amber R. Paulson, Maureen O'Callaghan, Xue-Xian Zhang, Paul B. Rainey, Mark R. H. Hurst
Summary: Analysis of the in vivo transcriptome of the entomopathogenic bacterium Yersinia entomophaga MH96 during infection in Galleria mellonella revealed upregulation of multiple toxin and adhesin genes, as well as the expression of genes encoding type III and VI secretion system-associated effectors. These findings provide insight into the pathobiology of MH96 and support efforts to identify novel insecticidal agents.
G3-GENES GENOMES GENETICS
(2021)