Rapid Speciation (rapid + speciation)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Distribution within Life Sciences


Selected Abstracts


RAPID SPECIATION FOLLOWING RECENT HOST SHIFTS IN THE PLANT PATHOGENIC FUNGUS RHYNCHOSPORIUM

EVOLUTION, Issue 6 2008
Pascal L. Zaffarano
Agriculture played a significant role in increasing the number of pathogen species and in expanding their geographic range during the last 10,000 years. We tested the hypothesis that a fungal pathogen of cereals and grasses emerged at the time of domestication of cereals in the Fertile Crescent and subsequently speciated after adaptation to its hosts. Rhynchosporium secalis, originally described from rye, causes an important disease on barley called scald, although it also infects other species of Hordeum and Agropyron. Phylogenetic analyses based on four DNA sequence loci identified three host-associated lineages that were confirmed by cross-pathogenicity tests. Bayesian analyses of divergence time suggested that the three lineages emerged between ,1200 to 3600 years before present (B.P.) with a 95% highest posterior density ranging from 100 to 12,000 years B.P. depending on the implemented clock models. The coalescent inference of demographic history revealed a very recent population expansion for all three pathogens. We propose that Rhynchosporium on barley, rye, and Agropyron host species represent three cryptic pathogen species that underwent independent evolution and ecological divergence by host-specialization. We postulate that the recent emergence of these pathogens followed host shifts. The subsequent population expansions followed the expansion of the cultivated host populations and accompanying expansion of the weedy Agropyron spp. found in fields of cultivated cereals. Hence, agriculture played a major role in the emergence of the scald diseases, the adaptation of the pathogens to new hosts and their worldwide dissemination. [source]


RAPID SPECIATION AND ECOLOGICAL DIVERGENCE IN THE AMERICAN SEVEN-SPINED GOBIES (GOBIIDAE, GOBIOSOMATINI) INFERRED FROM A MOLECULAR PHYLOGENY

EVOLUTION, Issue 7 2003
Lukas Rüber
Abstract., The American seven-spined gobies (Gobiidae, Gobiosomatini) are highly diverse both in morphology and ecology with many endemics in the Caribbean region. We have reconstructed a molecular phylogeny of 54 Gobio-somatini taxa (65 individuals) based on a 1646-bp region that includes the mitochondrial 12S rRNA, tRNA-Val, and 16S rRNA genes. Our results support the monophyly of the seven-spined gobies and are in agreement with the existence of two major groups within the tribe, the Gobiosoma group and the Microgobius group. However, they reject the monophyly of some of the Gobiosomatini genera. We use the molecular phylogeny to study the dynamics of speciation in the Gobiosomatini by testing for departures from the constant speciation rate model. We observe a burst of speciation in the early evolutionary history of the group and a subsequent slowdown. Our results show a split among clades into coastal-estuarian, deep ocean, and tropical reef habitats. Major habitat shifts account for the early significant acceleration in lineage splitting and speciation rate and the initial divergence of the main Gobiosomatini clades. We found that subsequent diversification is triggered by behavior and niche specializations at least in the reef-associated clades. Overall, our results confirm that the diversity of Gobiosomatini has arisen during episodes of adaptive radiation, and emphasize the importance of ecology in marine speciation. [source]


Rapid speciation of iron by on-line coupling of short column capillary electrophoresis and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry with the collision cell technique

JOURNAL OF SEPARATION SCIENCE, JSS, Issue 6 2007
Bao-Hui Li
Abstract A method for rapid speciation analysis of iron was developed by on-line coupling of short column capillary electrophoresis and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The collision cell technique was used to eliminate argon-based polyatomic interferences and a Micromist nebulizer was employed to increase the nebulization efficiency. Rapid speciation analysis of Fe(II) and Fe(III) was achieved within 1 min by short column capillary electrophoresis in a 14 cm×50 ,m id capillary at 28 kV voltage with a mixture of 15 mmol/L tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane + 1 mmol/L 1,10-phenanthroline + 1 mmol/L EDTA (pH 8.6) as running electrolyte. The precisions (RSD, n = 5) of migration time and peak area for Fe(II) and Fe(III) were in the range of 1.0,2.6 and 1.9,3.9%, respectively. The limits of detection (3,) of Fe(II) and Fe(III) were 10.0 and 8.3 ,g/L, respectively. [source]


Taxonomic diversity gradients through geological time

DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS, Issue 4 2001
J. Alistair Crame
Abstract., There is evidence from the fossil record to suggest that latitudinal gradients in taxonomic diversity may be time-invariant features, although almost certainly not on the same scale as that seen at the present day. It is now apparent that both latitudinal and longitudinal gradients increased dramatically in strength through the Cenozoic era (i.e. the last 65 my) to become more pronounced today than at any time in the geological past. Present-day taxonomic diversity gradients, in both the marine and terrestrial realms, are underpinned by the tropical radiations of a comparatively small number of species-rich clades. Quite why these particular taxa proliferated through the Cenozoic is uncertain, but it could be that at least part of the explanation involves the phenomenon of evolutionary escalation. This is, in essence, a theory of biological diversification through evolutionary feedback mechanisms between predators and prey; first one develops an adaptive advantage, and then the other. However, there may also have been some form of extrinsic control on the process of tropical diversification, and this was most likely centred on the phenomenon of global climate change. This is especially so over the last 15 my Various Late Cenozoic (Neogene) vicariant events effectively partitioned the tropics into a series of high diversity centres, or foci. It has been suggested that, in the largest of these in the marine realm (the Indo-West Pacific or IWP centre), a critical patterns of islands acted as a template for rapid speciation during glacioeustatic sea level cycles. The same process occurred in the Atlantic, Caribbean and East Pacific (ACEP) centre, though on a lesser scale. Tropical terrestrial diversity may also have been promoted by rapid range expansions and contractions in concert with glacial cycles (a modified refugium hypothesis). We are beginning to appreciate that an integrated sequence of Neogene tectonic and climatic events greatly influenced the formation of contemporary taxonomic diversity patterns. [source]


Speciation via species interactions: the divergence of mating traits within species

ECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 4 2010
Conrad J. Hoskin
Ecology Letters (2010) 13: 409,420 Abstract A species may overlap with a mosaic of species across its geographic range. Many types of species interaction cause selection on mating traits, but their role in generating within-species divergence has been neglected. The pattern of reproductive character displacement (RCD) has been classically attributed to reinforcement, a process driven by selection against hybridisation. Recent reinforcement research shows that sexual isolation can result between displaced and non-displaced populations. We argue that RCD (and hence potentially speciation) among populations can be generated by a variety of fundamental species interactions beyond reinforcement. We unify these interactions under one process of mating trait divergence and speciation (,RCD speciation'). This process can occur in many geographic settings. Because selection is acting directly on mating traits, rapid speciation can result involving little differentiation in other traits. This pattern of diversification is seen in many groups and regions, and has previously been attributed to sexual selection alone. [source]


DRIFT PROMOTES SPECIATION BY SEXUAL SELECTION

EVOLUTION, Issue 3 2009
Josef C. Uyeda
Quantitative genetic models of sexual selection have generally failed to provide a direct connection to speciation and to explore the consequences of finite population size. The connection to speciation has been indirect because the models have treated only the evolution of male and female traits and have stopped short of modeling the evolution of sexual isolation. In this article we extend Lande's (1981) model of sexual selection to quantify predictions about the evolution of sexual isolation and speciation. Our results, based on computer simulations, support and extend Lande's claim that drift along a line of equilibria can rapidly lead to sexual isolation and speciation. Furthermore, we show that rapid speciation can occur by drift in populations of appreciable size (Ne, 1000). These results are in sharp contrast to the opinion of many researchers and textbook writers who have argued that drift does not play an important role in speciation. We argue that drift may be a powerful amplifier of speciation under a wide variety of modeling assumptions, even when selection acts directly on female mating preferences. [source]


SEXUAL SELECTION DRIVES RAPID DIVERGENCE IN BOWERBIRD DISPLAY TRAITS

EVOLUTION, Issue 1 2000
J. Albert C. Uy
Abstract., Sexual selection driving display trait divergence has been suggested as a cause of rapid speciation, but there is limited supporting evidence for this from natural populations. Where speciation by sexual selection has occurred in newly diverged populations, we expect that there will be significant differences in female preferences and corresponding male display traits in the absence of substantial genetic and other morphological differentiation. Two allopatric populations of the Vogelkop bowerbird, Amblyornis inornatus, show large, qualitative differences in a suite of display traits including bower structure and decorations. We experimentally demonstrate distinct male decoration color preferences within each population, provide direct evidence of female preferences for divergent decoration and bower traits in the population with more elaborate display, and show that there is minimal genetic differentiation between these populations. These results support the speciation by sexual selection hypothesis and are most consistent with the hypothesis that changes in male display have been driven by divergent female choice. [source]


Parasites can cause selection against migrants following dispersal between environments

FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2010
Andrew D. C. MacColl
Summary 1.,The potential for selection against migrants to promote population divergence and speciation is well established in theory, yet there has been relatively little empirical work that has explicitly considered selection against migrants as a form of reproductive barrier, and its importance in the accumulation of reproductive isolation between populations has been overlooked until recently. 2.,Parasites often differ between environments and can be an important source of selection on hosts, yet their contribution to population divergence in general, and selection against migrants in particular, is poorly understood. 3.,Selection against migrants might be reduced if organisms escape parasitism when they disperse (natural enemy release). Alternatively, parasites could increase selection against migrants if, when they disperse, organisms encounter parasites to which they are poorly adapted. 4.,Here we test experimentally the contribution that parasites could make to selection against migrants in the adaptive radiation of three-spined sticklebacks. These fish have repeatedly colonized freshwater environments from marine ones, and this has repeatedly lead to rapid speciation. 5.,We use transplant experiments of lab-raised fish to simulate dispersal, and antihelminthic treatment to show that ancestral-type marine sticklebacks contract higher burdens of novel parasites when introduced to freshwater, than in saltwater, and suffer a growth cost as a direct result. 6.,Susceptibility to parasites and their detrimental effect is less in derived, freshwater fish from evolutionarily young populations, possibly as a result of selection for resistance. 7.,Our results support a role for parasites in selection against migrants and population diversification. They do not support the hypothesis of ,natural enemy release'. [source]


Ecological opportunity and the origin of adaptive radiations

JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Issue 8 2010
J. B. YODER
Abstract Ecological opportunity , through entry into a new environment, the origin of a key innovation or extinction of antagonists , is widely thought to link ecological population dynamics to evolutionary diversification. The population-level processes arising from ecological opportunity are well documented under the concept of ecological release. However, there is little consensus as to how these processes promote phenotypic diversification, rapid speciation and adaptive radiation. We propose that ecological opportunity could promote adaptive radiation by generating specific changes to the selective regimes acting on natural populations, both by relaxing effective stabilizing selection and by creating conditions that ultimately generate diversifying selection. We assess theoretical and empirical evidence for these effects of ecological opportunity and review emerging phylogenetic approaches that attempt to detect the signature of ecological opportunity across geological time. Finally, we evaluate the evidence for the evolutionary effects of ecological opportunity in the diversification of Caribbean Anolis lizards. Some of the processes that could link ecological opportunity to adaptive radiation are well documented, but others remain unsupported. We suggest that more study is required to characterize the form of natural selection acting on natural populations and to better describe the relationship between ecological opportunity and speciation rates. [source]


Does hybridization between divergent progenitors drive whole-genome duplication?

MOLECULAR ECOLOGY, Issue 16 2009
RICHARD J. A. BUGGS
Abstract Hybridization and whole-genome duplication are both potential mechanisms of rapid speciation which sometimes act in concert. Recent surveys, showing that homoploid hybrid species tend to be derived from parents that are less evolutionarily divergent than parents of polyploid hybrid species (allopolyploids), have been interpreted as supporting a hypothesis that high divergence between hybridizing species drives whole-genome duplication. Here, we argue that such conclusions stem from problems in sampling (especially the omission of autopolyploids) and null model selection, and underestimate the importance of selection. The data simply demonstrate that hybridization between divergent parents has a higher probability of successfully producing a species if followed by polyploidization. [source]