Week 9 Flashcards
What is an example of speciaiton caused by macromutation?
Speciation via polyploidy
Polyploidy – doubling of chromosomes either through hybridisation or spontaneous doubling within a species
What is the difference between allopolyploidy and autopolyploudy?
Allopolyploidy = hybridisation
Autopolyploidy = Same species doubling
How common are duplication events?
Estimated 30-70 % plants are polyploids
Also occurs in animals – e.g. salmonids, cyprinids, catfish….
Amphibians – Xenopus can be diploid (2x), tetraploid (4 sets, 4x), dodecaploid (twelve sets; 12x) eg Silurana tropicalis (2x) compared to Xenopus borealis (4x)
What is an example of polyploidy in plants?
Goatsbeards (Tragopogon spp) in N. America
T. mirus and T. miscellus have formed repeatedly during the past 80 years following the introduction of three diploids (T. dubius, T. pratensis, and T. porrifolius) from Europe to western North America
How does T.muscellus form in the wild?
T. miscellus is formed reciprocally from T. pratensis and T. dubius. When T. pratensis is the maternal parent, the ligules are short, and the capitulum is constricted at the base, but when T. dubius is the maternal parent, the ligules are long and the capitulum is more open
How does T.mirus (polyploid) form in the wild from diploid ancestors?
T. mirus has T. porrifolius as its maternal parent, and T. dubius as its paternal parent. No polyploid has formed in nature from T. pratensis and T. porrifolius, but diploid F1 hybrids have frequently been reported
What is an overview of speciation by genetic drift?
Proposed to occur under peripatric mode
Also known as founder effect speciation (Mayr)
A small subpopulation becomes geographically isolated from parent population, and becomes reproductively incompatible through genetic drift
Reproductive incompatibility may also be aided by indirect effects of natural selection
What is an example of speciation by genetic drift via peripatric mode?
Hawaiian Drosophila
Neighbouring islands hold more closely related species
Age of island corresponds to age of branching off of new species
Peripatric speciation through island hopping
What is an experiment for the founder effect?
Bottlenecking experiments in Drosophila (experiment separating putative effects of genetic drift from those of natural selection)
Rundle passed >40 experimental Drosophila populations through bottlenecks
In mating experiments, no significant sexual isolation from parent population
What is a case study for the evidence of the founder effect?
Island colonisations by Silvereyes (Zosterops lateralis)
Results show, instead, gradual decline in genetic variation with successive colonisations; implies single founder effects unimportant in this system (probably because of large number of colonists ~100), but sequential founder effects do reduce genetic variation cumulatively.
What is an overview of natural selection as a cause of speciation?
Natural selection as a direct cause of speciation (reinforcement)
Reinforcement = selection for prezygotic isolation, arising from reduced fitness in hybrids
Evidence from allopatric and sympatric Drosophila initial speciation assumed to be allopatric (sympatry is secondary)
What was an overview of reinforcement by recognition
Species recognition by female pied and collared flycatchers from sympatric populations.
Species assortative mating was significantly reduced when males of the two species had plumage characteristics typical of allopatric populations (small difference) compared to when the males had plumage characteristics typical of sympatric populations
What is an overview of natural selection as an indirect cause of speciation?
Populations adapt to different environments or niches (in (i) allopatry or (ii) sympatry), reproductive isolation follows as a by-product
What was an example of speciation by allopatry in Drosophila pseuodoobscura?
8 populations (4 starch-based medium and 4 maltose-based medium)
1 year after start, mating experiments performed
Result = positive assortative mating, Prefer to mate with opposite sex from same group even
across cages
Reproductive isolation by-product of adaptation to media
What is an overview of ‘Ecological character displacement’?
Competition (e.g. for food) between diverging species may be important in driving adaptive radiation (i.e. a series of rapid speciation events) i.e. the influence of one species on the evolution of another as a consequence of competition for resources
When does ‘Ecological character displacement’ occur?
The idea is that (i) competition (e.g. for food) plays a critical role in divergence and that (ii) character displacement occurs following competition for similar ecological niches
When can you estimate that ‘Ecological character displacement’ has occured?
A signature of character displacement is that there are more morphological and ecological differences between species in sympatry than in allopatry
What is an example of ‘Ecological character displacement’?
Three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus spp) in small
freshwater coastal lakes in SW British Columbia, Canada.
Lakes created following deglaciation c. 12,500 years ago, when extensive contact with sea and with populations of ancestral, marine three-spined sticklebacks ended.
Each lake contains either one (= ‘solitary’ species) or a pair of stickleback species.
What happens when there are two species of three-spined sticklebacks present in an ecosystem?
When a lake contains two species (= ‘paired’ species), one is of one type and the other of a second type, the types being:
‘Benthic’, = dwells on the lake bottom
‘Limnetic’, = dwells in open water
Such species pairs have apparently evolved independently at least 5 times
How did they compare for sympatry?
Morphological and diet data were gathered from 5 lakes with paired species and from 10 lakes with solitary species in the same area; and from 2 marine sites nearby
What was the morphological differences between lakes with 1 stickleback and 2?
1 species had a broud range for gill raker length all contained within 1 species
Where as 2 species lakes had 2 distinct groups each with there own peak and variation
What were the dietry differences between the 2 species of sticklebacks?
Limnetic species high propotion of diet was plankton in both breeding and non-breeding seasons
Benthic species high propotion of diet was benthos in both breeding and non-breeding seasons
Solitary species has a mix between plankton (mixed) and benthos (high in breeding season) depending on season and lake
What is an overview of natural selection being indirect from sympatry?
Apple Maggot Fly
150 yr ago, flies transfer to introduced Apples, a habit that has since spread
Host races are morphologically alike but show strong genetic differentiation (c. 2% gene exchange)
Members of each host race prefer natal host plant given choice, mate on natal host fruit, and mate at different times (3 weeks earlier on Apples
What are an overview of the great lakes and the number of Cichlids present in each area?
Lake Malawi - 2 to 5 My - 29,600km2, 500-1000 species of cichlids
Lake Tanganyika- 9 to 12 My - 32,600km2, 200-250 species of cichlids
Lake Victora- 0.25 to 0.75 My - 68,800km2, 500 species of cichlids
What is an overview of the diversity of Cichlids?
Diversity of mouth parts - range from Mollusc crusher, hunter, plant scrappers and scale eaters
Reproductive biology (e.g. different forms of parental care)
What is an overview of the diversity of Cichlids?
Diversity of mouth parts - range from Mollusc crusher, hunter, plant scrappers and scale eaters
Reproductive biology (e.g. different forms of parental care)
Most morphological and ecological differentiation found between genera; within genera, species differ principally in male coloration
What are the stages of speciation in Lake Malawi cichilids?
1 - Habitat choice (water column, rock, sand)
2 - Ecological diversification
3 - Colour diversification through sexual selection (via female choice of male colour differences)
Could have occurred via allopatric (‘micro-allopatric’) or sympatric modes
What evidence is there for microallopatry in Great Lake Cichilids?
Geological evidence shows water levels have fallen and risen, so lakes may have been formerly subdivided
Few species have lake-wide distributions
Patchy within-lake habitat distribution
Genetic evidence show fine-scale population differentiation
What experiment for sexual selection causing speciation in African cichlids?
If sexual selection has driven speciation, expect allopatric, related colour forms (putative incipient species) to show assortative mating
Tested in 5 forms of Pseudotropheus zebra complex from Lake Malawi
What were the method for sexual selection causing speciation in African cichlids?
Females given choice of any male from each colour form (in tank in which smaller females could enter compartment of any male, but each male could not leave his compartment)
Use microsatellite markers to assess which male obtained successful mating (i.e. was chosen)
What were the results for sexual selection causing speciation in African cichlids?
62% of 115 broods were fathered by the male from the same colour form as the female; females, on average, prefer to mate with male of same colour form
Consistent with colour forms representing incipient species diverging under sexual selection brought about by female preferences for different male sexual coloration
What is an overview of sexual selection in Tyrannida?
Differences in the rate and direction of plumage colour evolution are predicted by a proxy for sexual selection intensity (plumage dichromatism) in a large radiation of suboscine passerine birds (Tyrannida)
What is an overview of sexual selection in birds in Tyrannida?
Rates of plumage evolution are correlated between the sexes, but that sexual selection has a strong positive effect on male, but not female, interspecific divergence rates.
Rapid male plumage divergence is biased towards carotenoid-based (red/yellow) colours widely assumed to represent honest sexual signals.
Highlights the central role of sexual selection in driving avian colour divergence
What is an example of rapid speciation?
Cichlid - Lake Malawi
Lake colonised about 2 mya
Current estimate of 700 species
High rate of speciation
High rate of morphological change