Evolutionary ecology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Live birth may be a precursor for parent-offspring associations and subsequent sociality, but the ubiquity of live birth in mammals and parental care in birds precludes testing the relationship in those clades. Here the authors show that live birth, but not egg attendance, is associated with the evolution of social grouping in squamate reptiles.

    • Ben Halliwell
    • , Tobias Uller
    •  & Geoffrey M. While

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is unclear whether the transfer of plasmids carrying antibiotic resistance genes can explain their persistence when antibiotics are not present. Here, Lopatkin et al. show that conjugal plasmids, even when costly, are indeed transferred at sufficiently high rates to be maintained in the absence of antibiotics.

    • Allison J. Lopatkin
    • , Hannah R. Meredith
    •  & Lingchong You

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Variations in the gut microbiota may affect the host’s performance in changing environments. Here, Macke et al. show, in the freshwater crustacean Daphnia magna, that host genotype and external microbial inoculum interact to shape the gut microbiota, which in turns mediates tolerance to toxic cyanobacteria.

    • Emilie Macke
    • , Martijn Callens
    •  & Ellen Decaestecker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    To avoid being eaten, poisonous prey animals must rely on fast passage of toxins across a predator’s oral tissue, a major barrier to large molecules. Here, Raaymakers et al. show that antimicrobial peptides co secreted with frog toxins enhance intoxication of a snake predator by permeabilizing oral cell layers.

    • Constantijn Raaymakers
    • , Elin Verbrugghe
    •  & Kim Roelants

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans is thought to have been due to environmental factors, a selective advantage of modern humans, or both. Here, Kolodny and Feldman develop a neutral model of species drift showing that rapid Neanderthal replacement can be explained parsimoniously by simple migration dynamics.

    • Oren Kolodny
    •  & Marcus W. Feldman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The effects of biological similarity on geochemical signals recorded in planktonic foraminiferal tests used in paleo-reconstructions remains unclear. Here, the authors embed species-specific vital effect offsets in evolutionary models and show how shared evolutionary history shapes δ13C, but not δ18O values.

    • Kirsty M. Edgar
    • , Pincelli M. Hull
    •  & Thomas H. G. Ezard

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hummingbirds are known to defy the predicted scaling relationships between body and wing size. Here, Skandalis et al. develop a ‘force allometry’ framework to show that, regardless of wing size, hummingbird species have the same wing velocity during flight.

    • Dimitri A. Skandalis
    • , Paolo S. Segre
    •  & Douglas L. Altshuler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Ediacaran–Cambrian oxygenation of seawater is thought to have been caused by lifeforms engaging in ecosystem engineering. Here, the authors show that siliceous sponges increased seawater dissolved oxygen concentrations by redistributing organic carbon oxidation through filtering suspended organic matter.

    • Michael Tatzel
    • , Friedhelm von Blanckenburg
    •  & Dorothee Hippler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lab strains of Pseudomonas are model systems for the evolution of cooperation over public goods (iron-scavenging siderophores). Here, Butaitė et al. add ecological and evolutionary insight into this system by showing that cheating and resistance to cheating both shape competition for iron in natural Pseudomonas communities.

    • Elena Butaitė
    • , Michael Baumgartner
    •  & Rolf Kümmerli

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The three-spined stickleback is a model species for the study of adaptive divergence. Here, Raeymaekers et al. compare how the three-spined stickleback and its relative the nine-spined stickleback vary at the phenotypic and genomic levels in response to the same spatial and environmental drivers.

    • Joost A. M. Raeymaekers
    • , Anurag Chaturvedi
    •  & Filip A. M. Volckaert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hosts vary in how dependent they are on their beneficial symbionts. Here, Fisher and colleagues analyse the results of symbiont-removal experiments from 106 symbioses in a phylogenetic context and show that host dependence is associated with symbiont transmission mode, function, and genome size.

    • Roberta M. Fisher
    • , Lee M. Henry
    •  & Stuart A. West

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Diversification may be driven by diversity, a concept Calcagnoet al. explore using models of intra- and inter-specific ecological interactions. A threshold number of species is sometimes required before adaptive radiations can occur; a phenomenon they term diversity-dependent adaptive radiation.

    • Vincent Calcagno
    • , Philippe Jarne
    •  & Patrice David

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multicellularity can arise by cells aggregating or remaining connected after cell division. Here, Driscoll and Travisano show that both mechanisms operate in experimentally evolved strains of the yeastKluyveromyces lactis, with transient aggregation facilitating the coexistence of unicellular and multicellular genotypes.

    • William W Driscoll
    •  & Michael Travisano

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Environmental niche models are often used to predict species responses to climate change but they neglect the potential for evolutionary responses. Here, Cottoet al. develop a model incorporating demographic processes and evolutionary dynamics and show that perennial alpine plants persist in unsuitable habitats but produce maladapted offspring.

    • Olivier Cotto
    • , Johannes Wessely
    •  & Frédéric Guillaume

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Observations of recent or dynamic transitions between parasitism and mutualism are scarce. Here, Flórezet al. provide evidence that Burkholderia gladiolibacteria can protect the eggs of herbivorous beetles by producing antimicrobial compounds, while retaining their ancestral ability to infect plants.

    • Laura V. Flórez
    • , Kirstin Scherlach
    •  & Martin Kaltenpoth

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pollinators are thought to be a driver of plant diversification, but their effects are difficult to disentangle from those of other biotic and abiotic factors. Here, the authors let plants evolve under different pollination regimes and show rapid and divergent evolution of plant height, floral traits and mating system.

    • Daniel D. L. Gervasi
    •  & Florian P Schiestl

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although common in ants and termites, worker differentiation into physical castes is rare in social bees and unknown in wasps. Here, Grüter and colleagues find a guard caste in ten species of stingless bees and show that the evolution of the guard caste is associated with parasitization by robber bees.

    • Christoph Grüter
    • , Francisca H. I. D. Segers
    •  & Eduardo A. B. Almeida

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Habitat fragmentation can lead to extinction even when some habitat remains. Here, the authors model the metapopulation dynamics of the Glanville fritillary butterfly and show that persistence depends on spatial configuration and quality of the habitat, as well as on genotype-associated dispersal rate.

    • Ilkka Hanski
    • , Torsti Schulz
    •  & Sami P. Ojanen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Theory suggests that spatial sorting by dispersal ability can generate evolutionarily accelerated range expansions. Using the bean beetleCallosobruchus maculatus, this study shows that evolution not only increases the speed of range expansion, as predicted, but also increases variability.

    • Brad M. Ochocki
    •  & Tom E. X. Miller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spatial structure provides unique opportunities for evolution during range expansions. Here, the authors show experimentally using the red flour beetle,Tribolium castaneum, that dispersal and growth can evolve through spatial processes, increasing expansion speed and its variance.

    • Christopher Weiss-Lehman
    • , Ruth A Hufbauer
    •  & Brett A Melbourne

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In cooperatively breeding species, subordinates help to raise the dominant breeders’ offspring in return for benefits associated with group membership. Here, Grinsted and Field show that the amount of help provided by subordinate paper wasps depends on the availability of alternative nesting options, as predicted by biological market theory.

    • Lena Grinsted
    •  & Jeremy Field

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How water striders escape from danger by jumping vertically from the water surface without sinking is an open question in biomechanics. Yanget al. show that water strider species with varying leg lengths and body masses tune their leg movements to maximize jump speeds without breaking the surface of the water.

    • Eunjin Yang
    • , Jae Hak Son
    •  & Ho-Young Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In many groups of organisms, speciation rates are higher when global temperatures are warmer. Here, Davis et al. find that marine crustaceans in the Anomura clade have higher speciation rates during cooler periods, whereas their freshwater relatives have the more typical relationship of higher speciation rates in warmer periods.

    • Katie E. Davis
    • , Jon Hill
    •  & Matthew A. Wills

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mutualisms in which ants protect plants in exchange for food and shelter have arisen independently multiple times. Here, Rubin and Moreau sequence the genomes of three mutualistic ant species and four of their non-mutualistic relatives and show that the transition to mutualism is associated with elevated evolutionary rates across the genome

    • Benjamin E. R. Rubin
    •  & Corrie S. Moreau

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How do species adapt to environmental change when living with different kinds of competitors? Through a reciprocal transplant experiment, the authors show that competitive community alters the nature of selection so that species adapt to elevated CO2in different ways in varying community contexts.

    • Elizabeth J. Kleynhans
    • , Sarah P. Otto
    •  & Mark Vellend

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Though both the presence and traits of a species can influence the dynamics of its ecological community, the effects of these factors are difficult to disentangle. Here, Gómez et al. demonstrate in a microbial mesocosm that local adaptation of a focal species can influence the community as much as the presence of the focal species per se.

    • Pedro Gómez
    • , Steve Paterson
    •  & Angus Buckling

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many microbial lineages have not yet been cultured, which hampers our understanding of their physiology. Here, Wurch et al. use single-cell genomics to infer cultivation conditions for the isolation of a tiny ectosymbiotic nanoarchaeon and its crenarchaeota host from a geothermal spring.

    • Louie Wurch
    • , Richard J. Giannone
    •  & Mircea Podar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The cause of a 20% decline in sea floor calcareous foraminifera species during the Mid-Pleistocene remains enigmatic. Here, the authors present new geochemical evidence, from the Tasman Sea that supports a change in phytoplankton food source as the primary driver.

    • Sev Kender
    • , Erin L. McClymont
    •  & Henry Elderfield

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Delimiting populations is crucial for conserving threatened species. Using genome-wide data from the whole of Antarctica, Cristofari et al.show that Emperor penguins are organised into a single global population that have shared demography since the late Quarternary.

    • Robin Cristofari
    • , Giorgio Bertorelle
    •  & Emiliano Trucchi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Within species, there tends to be a tight relationship between genital size and body size, suggesting strong stabilizing selection. Here, Booksmythe et al.artificially select relative genital size in mosquitofish and find that novel genital size-body size combinations do not lead to expected fitness reductions.

    • Isobel Booksmythe
    • , Megan L. Head
    •  & Michael D. Jennions

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Toxic and venomous species often have conspicuous warning colouration that is mimicked by harmless species. Here, Davis Rabosky et al. combine phylogenetic and biogeographic analyses to reveal that mimicry of venomous coral snakes has been a major driver of snake colour evolution in the New World.

    • Alison R. Davis Rabosky
    • , Christian L. Cox
    •  & Jimmy A. McGuire

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Diet is known to influence speciation, but much less is known about how this process operates at macroevolutionary scales. Using a global dietary database of birds, Burin et al. show that omnivory is associated with higher extinction and lower speciation rates compared to other guilds.

    • Gustavo Burin
    • , W. Daniel Kissling
    •  & Tiago B. Quental

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The response of parents to offspring begging behaviour is hugely variable in birds, but what mediates this response is not known. In a meta-analysis across 143 species, Caro et al. show that variation in offspring begging and parental care is a function of environmental quality and predictability.

    • Shana M. Caro
    • , Ashleigh S. Griffin
    •  & Stuart A. West

  • Article |

    The evolutionary transitions leading to the modern endothermic state of birds and mammals is unclear. Here, the authors use isotopologues from eggshells to determine body temperatures of females during periods of ovulation, suggesting variability existed between sauropods and the more bird-like oviraptors.

    • Robert A. Eagle
    • , Marcus Enriquez
    •  & John M. Eiler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Insects include most living species, yet the causes of this remarkable diversity remain unclear. Here, the authors show a positive relationship between herbivory and diversification among insect orders, which suggests that herbivory helps explain insect diversity.

    • John J. Wiens
    • , Richard T. Lapoint
    •  & Noah K. Whiteman

  • Article |

    Intraspecific variation is known to cascade evolutionary change down through food webs, although bottom-up changes are less well described. Here, Brodersenet al. show that life history change in a prey fish species, mediated through anthropogenic activity, can promote phenotypic diversification of its top predator.

    • Jakob Brodersen
    • , Jennifer G. Howeth
    •  & David M. Post

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The long-term response of marine cyanobacteria to increased anthropogenic CO2 are not known. Here, Hutchins et al. show that Trichodesmium exposed to long-term selection at elevated CO2display irreversible increases in nitrogen fixation and growth rates, even after returning to present day conditions.

    • David A. Hutchins
    • , Nathan G. Walworth
    •  & Fei-Xue Fu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Introduction of pathogens can cause colony collapse in honey bees. Here, the authors use museum specimens to show widespread colony mortality but unaffected nuclear genetic diversity in a wild population of honey bees in North America following the introduction of ectoparasiticVarroamites.

    • Alexander S. Mikheyev
    • , Mandy M. Y. Tin
    •  & Thomas D. Seeley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding how biological invaders displace native species is challenging. Here, the authors compare the evolution of life-history strategies in the harlequin ladybird under laboratory conditions and show that invaders reproduce earlier and allocate more resources to reproduction than natives.

    • Ashraf Tayeh
    • , Ruth A. Hufbauer
    •  & Benoit Facon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biological range expansions and invasions can be affected by rapid evolution. Here the authors show an evolutionary increase of dispersal during range expansions and an increase of population densities from range cores to range margins in microcosm experiments with a freshwater ciliate.

    • Emanuel A. Fronhofer
    •  & Florian Altermatt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Functional differentiation and taxonomic diversity are related in modern ecosystems. Here, the authors show that functional differentiation lags behind taxonomic diversification early in the evolutionary history of marine animals and that important shifts in this relationship occur at major mass extinction events.

    • M.L. Knope
    • , N.A. Heim
    •  & J.L. Payne

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Growing evidence reveals great diversity of archaic Asian hominins. Here, Chang and colleagues describe a newly discovered archaic Homomandible from Taiwan, which suggests the survival of multiple evolutionary lineages among archaic hominins before the arrival of modern humans to eastern Asia.

    • Chun-Hsiang Chang
    • , Yousuke Kaifu
    •  & Liang-Kong Lin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bacteria secrete signalling molecules (AHLs) to coordinate actions such as biofilm formation and the release of public goods, in a process called quorum sensing. Here, the authors show that AHLs are stochastically produced and control asocial (self-directed) traits in young biofilms of P. putida.

    • Gerardo Cárcamo-Oyarce
    • , Putthapoom Lumjiaktase
    •  & Leo Eberl

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Calcifying organisms such as planktonic coccolithophores may be particularly vulnerable to increased ocean acidification. Here, O’Dea et al.show that two fossil coccolithophore species exhibited reduced calcification rates during a global warming acidification event 56 million years ago.

    • Sarah A. O’Dea
    • , Samantha J. Gibbs
    •  & Paul A. Wilson

  • Article |

    It is generally accepted that Polynesian settlers were directly responsible for the extinction of New Zealand moa. Here, the authors present three series of radiocarbon ages that define the brief period of interaction between Polynesians and moa, and show that high human population densities are not a prerequisite for the extinction of megafauna populations.

    • Richard N. Holdaway
    • , Morten E. Allentoft
    •  & Michael Bunce

  • Review Article |

    Patterns of genomic variation can be used to identify targets of positive selection but understanding their mode of evolution is challenging. This review discusses theory and empirical evidence regarding soft sweep models and concludes that the recent enthusiasm for soft sweeps is unfounded.

    • Jeffrey D Jensen

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