Evolution of Competitive Ability: An Adaptation Speed vs. Accuracy Tradeoff Rooted in Gene Network Size

Ecologists have increasingly come to understand that evolutionary change on short time-scales can alter ecological dynamics (and vice-versa), and this idea is being incorporated into community ecology research programs. Previous research has suggested that the size and topology of the gene network underlying a quantitative trait should constrain or facilitate adaptation and thereby alter population dynamics. Here, I consider a scenario in which two species with different genetic architectures compete and evolve in fluctuating environments. An important trade-off emerges between adaptive accuracy and adaptive speed, driven by the size of the gene network underlying the ecologically-critical trait and the rate of environmental change. Smaller, scale-free networks confer a competitive advantage in rapidly-changing environments, but larger networks permit increased adaptive accuracy when environmental change is sufficiently slow to allow a species time to adapt. As the differences in network characteristics increase, the time-to-resolution of competition decreases. These results augment and refine previous conclusions about the ecological implications of the genetic architecture of quantitative traits, emphasizing a role of adaptive accuracy. Along with previous work, in particular that considering the role of gene network connectivity, these results provide a set of expectations for what we may observe as the field of ecological genomics develops

Smaller Gene Networks Permit Longer Persistence in Fast-Changing Environments

The environments in which organisms live and reproduce are rarely static, and as the environment changes, populations must evolve so that phenotypes match the challenges presented. The quantitative traits that map to environmental variables are underlain by hundreds or thousands of interacting genes whose allele frequencies and epistatic relationships must change appropriately for adaptation to occur. Extending an earlier model in which individuals possess an ecologically-critical trait encoded by gene networks of 16 to 256 genes and random or scale-free topology, I test the hypothesis that smaller, scale-free networks permit longer persistence times in a constantly-changing environment. Genetic architecture interacting with the rate of environmental change accounts for 78% of the variance in trait heritability and 66% of the variance in population persistence times. When the rate of environmental change is high, the relationship between network size and heritability is apparent, with smaller and scale-free networks conferring a distinct advantage for persistence time. However, when the rate of environmental change is very slow, the relationship between network size and heritability disappears and populations persist the duration of the simulations, without regard to genetic architecture. These results provide a link between genes and population dynamics that may be tested as the -omics and bioinformatics fields mature, and as we are able to determine the genetic basis of ecologically-relevant quantitative traits

Direct and indirect transgenerational effects alter plant-herbivore interactions

Theory suggests that environmental effects with transgenerational consequences, including rapid evolution and maternal effects, may affect the outcome of ecological interactions. However, indirect effects occur when interactions between two species are altered by the presence of a third species, and make the consequences of transgenerational effects difficult to predict. We manipulated the presence of insect herbivores and the competitor Medicago polymorpha in replicated Lotus wrangelianus populations. After one generation, we used seeds from the surviving Lotus to initiate a reciprocal transplant experiment to measure how transgenerational effects altered ecological interactions between Lotus, Medicago, and insect herbivores. Herbivore leaf damage and Lotus fecundity were dependent on both parental and offspring environmental conditions. The presence of insect herbivores or Medicago in the parental environment resulted in transgenerational changes in herbivore resistance, but these effects were non-additive, as a result of indirect effects in the parental environment. Indirect transgenerational effects interacted with more immediate ecological indirect effects on Lotus fecundity. These results suggest that explanations of ecological patterns require an understanding of transgenerational effects and that these effects may be difficult to predict in species-rich, natural communities where indirect effects are prevalent

Evolution of species interactions determines microbial community productivity in new environments

Diversity generally increases ecosystem productivity over short timescales. Over longer timescales, both ecological and evolutionary responses to new environments could alter productivity and diversity–productivity relationships. In turn, diversity might affect how component species adapt to new conditions. We tested these ideas by culturing artificial microbial communities containing between 1 and 12 species in three different environments for ∼60 generations. The relationship between community yields and diversity became steeper over time in one environment. This occurred despite a general tendency for the separate yields of isolates of constituent species to be lower at the end if they had evolved in a more diverse community. Statistical comparisons of community and species yields showed that species interactions had evolved to be less negative over time, especially in more diverse communities. Diversity and evolution therefore interacted to enhance community productivity in a new environment