Mutational collapse of fitness in marginal habitats and the evolution of ecological specialisation

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_EF1D52714ADF
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Title
Mutational collapse of fitness in marginal habitats and the evolution of ecological specialisation
Journal
Journal of Evolutionary Biology
Author(s)
Kawecki T.J., Barton N.H., Fry J.D.
ISSN
1010-061X
Publication state
Published
Issued date
1997
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
10
Number
3
Pages
407-429
Language
english
Abstract
In spatially heterogeneous environments, natural selection for maintenance of adaptation to habitats that contribute little to the population's reproduction is weak. In this paper we model a mechanism that can result in loss of fitness in such marginal habitats, and thus lead to specialisation on the main habitat. It involves accumulation of mutations that are deleterious in the marginal habitat but neutral or nearly so in the main habitat (mutations deleterious in the main habitat and neutral in the marginal habitat have a negligible influence). If the contribution of the marginal habitat to total reproduction in the absence of the mutations is less than a threshold value, selection is too weak to counter accumulation of such mutations. A positive feedback then results in loss of fitness in the marginal habitat. This mechanism does not require antagonistic pleiotropy in adaptation to different habitats, although antagonistic pleiotropy facilitates the mutational collapse of fitness in the marginal habitat. We suggest that deleterious mutations with habitat-specific expression may play a role in the evolution of ecological specialisation and promote evolutionary conservatism of ecological niches.
Keywords
ecological niche, fitness, heterogeneous environment, mutation load, specialisation
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
19/11/2007 10:53
Last modification date
20/08/2019 16:16
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