Local adaptation
Local adaptation is the evolution of one species in response to recent evolutionary changes in an other species. It results from the interactions among evolutionary forces (selection, genetic drift, mutation, migration)[1] and is observable on a human timescale.[2] The evolution of species in spatially and temporarily heterogeneous environments generates different selective pressures.[3] That is why co-adaptation between competitors (parasitism, predation) and mutualists is constant, selecting or maintaining the frequency of traits acting in survival and/or reproduction.[4] This dynamic process favors local coevolution and specialization of the participants in the interaction. Local adaptation can be effected both on a large geographic scale (between populations of one species separated by hundreds kilometers), microgeographically (less than 1 kilometer) and even seasonally.
Modification in selective pressures can facilitate adaptation by increasing local genetic variation. Those modifications are often found in the context of antagonistic interactions, where co-evolution is fast and results in an ‘arms race’ in which organisms constantly adapt, evolve and survive against each other-evolving opposing organisms. In such interactions, the one evolving the most rapidly, having a shorter generation time or higher mutation or migration rate, is locally adapted while the other is not.[5] Local adaptation can be evaluated by comparing fitness of the interacting agents in close geographical areas and in isolated areas.[6]
Examples
- In the lakes of New Zealand, Microphallus sp. trematodes are more adapted to Potamopyrgus antipodarum snails with sexual reproduction from shallow-water area than to deeper-water snails with asexual reproduction.[7]
- Local adaptation can be made by Daphnia magna under environmental stressors by changing their phototactic (response to light) behavior and their life-history traits (body and eggs size, brood size).[8]
- Soil fertility is a key driver of local adaptation in Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbioses. Locally adapted mycorrhizal associations are more mutualistic at sites with limited phosphorus and less parasitic at sites with limited nitrogen, depending on the plant, soil and fungi combination.[9]
See also
References
- ↑ Blanquart F., Kaltz O., Nuismer S.L., Gandon S. 2013. A practical guide to measuring local adaptation . Ecology letters, 16 : 1195-1205
- ↑ Thompson J. N. 2005. The geographic mosaic of coevolution. University of Chicago Press. Chap 5, 72-73
- ↑ Gandon S., Michalakis Y. 2002. Local adaptation, evolutionary potential and host–parasite co-evolution: interactions between migration, mutation, population size and generation time. J. EVOL. BIOL. 15, 451–462
- ↑ Taylor E. B. 1991. A review of local adaptation in Salmonidae, with particular reference to Pacific and Atlantic salmon. Aquaculture, 98: 185-207
- ↑ that evolve the most rapidly, thanks to a shorter generation time or higher mutation or migration rate, is locally adapted
- ↑ Kaltz O., Skykoff J. 1998. Local adaptation in host-parasite systems. Heredity. 81: 361-370
- ↑ King K. C., Delph L. F., Jokela J., Lively C. M. 2011. Coevolutionary hotspots and coldspots for host sex and parasite local adaptation in a snail-trematode interaction. Oikos ; 120(9) :1335-1340
- ↑ Boersma M., De Meester L., Spaak P. 1999. Environmental stress and local adaptation in Daphnia magna. Limnol. Oceanogr., 44(2), 393-402.
- ↑ Johnson N. J., Wilson G. W. T., Bowker M. A., Wilson J. A., Miller M. R. 2009. Resource limitation is a driver of local adaptation in mycorrhizal symbioses. PNAS. Vol. 107, No. 5, 2093-2098.