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#speciation

0 posts0 participants0 posts today
Public
michael

10-Oct-2024
#Galápagos finches could be singing a different song after repeated drought—one that leads to #speciation

eurekalert.org/news-releases/1 #science #evolution #birdsong

EurekAlert!Galápagos finches could be singing a different song after repeated drought—one that leads to speciationGalápagos finches use their beaks to crush seeds and sing songs, so what happens to their musical trills when their beaks change to respond to new menus available under drought? Jeffrey Podos and Katie Schroeder found that the song might not remain the same after six cumulative future drought events that would likely reshape the finch beak. The projected changes in male mating songs could be so significant that they provide a pathway for ecological speciation, the researchers suggest. The researchers tested this idea by digitally modifying male mating songs of Darwin’s medium ground finches (Geospiza fortis) to sound like they might if beaks grew bigger under one, three or six cumulative future drought events. They then tested these “ghost of finches future” songs by playing them back to today’s male finches, as if the singers of the ghost songs were intruding on the males’ territory. Current males did not show signs of recognizing songs produced after six cumulative future drought events, treating the unseen producers of these songs as if they were no longer mating rivals. The study provides a better idea of how much “ecological change, and matched evolution of beaks and songs, would be required to elevate barriers to reproductive isolation,” the researchers write.
Public
Lukas VFN 🇪🇺

#Cuckoos evolve to look like their hosts—and form #NewSpecies in the process phys.org/news/2024-05-cuckoos-

#Coevolution with hosts underpins #speciation in brood-parasitic cuckoos science.org/doi/10.1126/scienc

"Each species of bronze-cuckoo closely matches the appearance of their host's chicks, fooling the host parents into accepting the #cuckoo. The study shows how these interactions can cause new species to arise when a cuckoo species exploits several different hosts."

A male superb fairy-wren brings food to a Horsfield's bronze-cuckoo fledgling. The cuckoo is bigger than the fairy-wren.
Public
Lukas VFN 🇪🇺

Is The Elusive #Toothfish Migratory or Stationary? oceanbites.org/flight-or-freez

#SatelliteTagging confirms long distance movement and fast dispersal of #PatagonianToothfish in the SW Atlantic frontiersin.org/articles/10.33

"in one location of particular importance to the species, #DavisBank, a high catch area just east of the #Antarctic Polar Front, #fish populations are isolated from one another geographically. This could potentially lead to #speciation–the formation of a new species."

old illustration of a fish
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MikeF

The fitness landscape of a community of Darwin’s finches

Basically confirms and expands on Darwin's understanding of adaptive radiation in Galapagos finches in real-time. Adaptive radiation is the idea that a population, in an environment with varied unoccupied habitats and resources, can relatively quickly diverge into many new species.

academic.oup.com/evolut/articl

OUP AcademicThe fitness landscape of a community of Darwin’s finchesAbstract. Divergent natural selection should lead to adaptive radiation—that is, the rapid evolution of phenotypic and ecological diversity originating from a s
#evolution#birds#darwin
Public
Mike Barker

A new preprint from the lab testing aspects of a hypothesis that lower chromosome numbers may result from selection to reduce independently assorting incompatibilities. In short, we do not find evidence to support the hypothesis in our analyses. Great work led by PhD student Geoff Finch!

Post-zygotic reproductive isolation is not correlated with chromosome number in plants

biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20

Plots of expected relationships between the crossability index (y-axis) and chromosome number (negative relationship), median Ks of most recent WGD (positive relationship), and fraction of paleologs in a genome (negative relationship). These relationships were evaluated in the manuscript.
#chromosome#WGD#plantevolution
Public
Adam Trickett :debian: :kde:

Ghosts of the past.

I wrote this 30 years ago for my PhD, and I'm not only amazed that it was published to start with, but it's still being cited today...

nature.com/articles/hdy1994180

NatureRecombination suppressors and the evolution of new species - HeredityChromosomal rearrangements are often the only apparent difference between closely related species, although it is not clear whether they are a cause or a by-product of speciation. We suggest that changes in the pattern of recombination may provide a link between chromosomal rearrangements and speciation. In models of speciation by sexual selection and by reinforcement, recombination is a major barrier to the formation of new species, primarily because it opposes the establishment of linkage disequilibrium. Here we show that in both the Felsenstein (1981) and Kirkpatrick (1982) models, a recombination suppressor is able to enhance the processes leading to speciation and increase its own frequency in the population.
#science#genetics#speciation
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Nicolas Bierne

Super cool new comparative #speciation genomics study by the Lille dream team (Camille Roux, @cfraisserios, PhD François Monnet, and colleagues).
Genetic isolation is observed at much lower molecular divergences in plants than in animals, and the grey zone is shifted towards lower divergences. I know established researchers who will find this hard to believe, but data is data, and when analyzed elegantly, it can challenge established perceptions. #PopGen

biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20

Public
Richard Lenski

I'm sad to report that my emeritus collegue Guy Bush passed away yesterday. He was a terrific scientist & storyteller, and w/ his late wife Dorie a friend to many here at #MSU and around the world.

Guy’s research focused on #sympatric #speciation in Rhagoletis. With the late Don Hall, Guy founded our highly succesful grad program in #Ecology, #Evolution & #Behavior.

Guy was the John Hannah Distinguished Prof of Evolutionary Biology, and a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

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Colin Purrington

Juniper hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus). Per one source, this species' odd choice of a conifer as a host might be because its ancestral species ate mistletoes, a dicot parasite that is often found attacking junipers. Then over evolutionary time a mutant popped up that could eat the conifer host, too, followed by further specialization and eventual speciation. Interesting theory, which I've probably butchered. #lycaenidae #butterfly #lepidoptera #insect #entomology #nature #madras #oregon #speciation

Small orange butterfly with striped antennae exploring the branches of a juniper.
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