Titre
Mutational collapse of fitness in marginal habitats and the evolution of ecological specialisation
Type
article
Institution
Externe
Périodique
Auteur(s)
Kawecki, T.J.
Auteure/Auteur
Barton, N.H.
Auteure/Auteur
Fry, J.D.
Auteure/Auteur
Liens vers les personnes
ISSN
1010-061X
Statut éditorial
Publié
Date de publication
1997
Volume
10
Numéro
3
Première page
407
Dernière page/numéro d’article
429
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Langue
anglais
Résumé
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.
PID Serval
serval:BIB_EF1D52714ADF
Open Access
Oui
Date de création
2007-11-19T09:53:27.702Z
Date de création dans IRIS
2025-05-21T06:09:30Z