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Dual-stressor selection alters eco-evolutionary dynamics in experimental communities

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 2, pages 1974–1981 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Recognizing when and how rapid evolution drives ecological change is fundamental for our understanding of almost all ecological and evolutionary processes such as community assembly, genetic diversification and the stability of communities and ecosystems. Generally, rapid evolutionary change is driven through selection on genetic variation and is affected by evolutionary constraints, such as tradeoffs and pleiotropic effects, all contributing to the overall rate of evolutionary change. Each of these processes can be influenced by the presence of multiple environmental stressors reducing a population’s reproductive output. Potential consequences of multistressor selection for the occurrence and strength of the link from rapid evolution to ecological change are unclear. However, understanding these is necessary for predicting when rapid evolution might drive ecological change. Here we investigate how the presence of two stressors affects this link using experimental evolution with the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens and its predator Tetrahymena thermophila. We show that the combination of predation and sublethal antibiotic concentrations delays the evolution of anti-predator defence and antibiotic resistance compared with the presence of only one of the two stressors. Rapid defence evolution drives stabilization of the predator–prey dynamics but this link between evolution and ecology is weaker in the two-stressor environment, where defence evolution is slower, leading to less stable population dynamics. Tracking the molecular evolution of whole populations over time shows further that mutations in different genes are favoured under multistressor selection. Overall, we show that selection by multiple stressors can significantly alter eco-evolutionary dynamics and their predictability.

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Fig. 1: Eco-evolutionary dynamics of P. fluorescens populations exposed to sub-MIC levels of streptomycin and ciliates.
Fig. 2: Stability of bacteria–ciliate populations exposed to 0 × or 0.1 × MIC sub-MIC levels of streptomycin and the correlation of stability with defence levels of the bacteria populations.
Fig. 3: Trait correlations of clonal isolates from P. fluorescens populations exposed to 0.1 × MIC streptomycin and the ciliate T. thermophila from the end of the experiment (day 66).
Fig. 4: Molecular evolution of P. fluorescens populations exposed to 0.1 × MIC streptomycin and the ciliate T. thermophila in a factorial design.

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Data availability

Data reported in the paper will be archived in a community archive. Raw sequence reads from genomic analyses have been deposited in the NCBI Sequence Read Archive under the BioProject accession number PRJNA476204. Count and trait data have been deposited at PANGAEA: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.895614.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to T. Niska, S. Suomalainen, T. Virolainen and J. Haafke for helping with data collection. This work was supported by an Emmy Noether Grant and Heisenberg Stipend from the German Research Foundation (DFG) to L.B. (grant nos. BE 4135/3-1 and 4135/9), and received support from the Academy of Finland to T.H. (project no. 106993), to J.L. (project no. 1255572) and to V.K. (project no. 1267541) and the Finnish Cultural Foundation to J.C. (grant no. 160149).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Jens Frickel

    Present address: VIB–KU Leuven Center for Microbiology, CMPG Laboratory of Genetics and Genomics, Department M2S, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

  2. Lutz Becks

    Present address: Limnological Institute, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany

  3. These authors contributed equally: Teppo Hiltunen, Lutz Becks.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Teppo Hiltunen & Johannes Cairns

  2. Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Teppo Hiltunen

  3. Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Community Dynamics Group, Plön, Germany

    Jens Frickel & Lutz Becks

  4. Department of Biological and Environmental Science, Centre of Excellence in Biological Interactions, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Matti Jalasvuori

  5. Department of Biosciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Jouni Laakso & Veijo Kaitala

  6. Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany

    Sven Künzel

  7. Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK

    Emre Karakoc

  8. Kiel Evolution Centre, Biologiezentrum, Am Botanischen Garten, Kiel, Germany

    Lutz Becks

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Contributions

T.H., M.J. and L.B. conceived and designed the study. J.C., J.F., E.K. and L.B. analysed the sequence data. S.K. performed the sequencing. T.H. and J.C. collected the data. L.B. and T.H. analysed the data. J.F., T.H. and L.B. wrote the manuscript. All authors contributed to the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Lutz Becks.

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Hiltunen, T., Cairns, J., Frickel, J. et al. Dual-stressor selection alters eco-evolutionary dynamics in experimental communities. Nat Ecol Evol 2, 1974–1981 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0701-5

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