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Evolution

Differences can hold populations together

Nature volume 546, pages 218–219 (2017)Cite this article

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Evolution favours the body form best adapted to the local environment, but it can also favour rare forms. Stickleback experiments reveal how these two selection forces can interact, and how this can limit population divergence. See Letter p.285

Adaptive evolution causes populations to evolve towards a body form that is best suited to the local environment. For example, woodland populations of the snail Cepaea nemoralis have shells that are predominantly brown or pink, whereas meadow populations usually have yellow shells. The most-common shell colour is the one that most closely matches the background environment where the snail resides, and therefore offers camouflage protection from predators. However, snails with shell colours that do not match their background can also persist in these populations because predators tend to focus their search on the most-common shell colour1. This type of selection favouring rarity is called frequency-dependent selection. On page 285, Bolnick and Stutz2 investigate the interaction between selection that favours the optimum and selection that favours the rare, when both come into play at the same time.

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Figure 1: Different forms of stickleback fish inhabit lakes and streams.

Daniel Berner (adapted)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, 92521, California, USA

    David N. Reznick

  2. the Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, 32306, Florida, USA

    Joseph Travis

Authors
  1. David N. Reznick
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  2. Joseph Travis
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Correspondence to David N. Reznick or Joseph Travis.

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Reznick, D., Travis, J. Differences can hold populations together. Nature 546, 218–219 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22502

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