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Parallelism and historical contingency during rapid ecotype divergence in an isopod

Author

Summary, in English

Recent studies on parallel evolution have focused on the relative role of selection and historical contingency during adaptive divergence. Here, we study geographically separate and genetically independent lake populations of a freshwater isopod (Asellus aquaticus) in southern Sweden. In two of these lakes, a novel habitat was rapidly colonized by isopods from a source habitat. Rapid phenotypic changes in pigmentation, size and sexual behaviour have occurred, presumably in response to different predatory regimes. We partitioned the phenotypic variation arising from habitat ('selection': 81-94%), lake ('history': 0.1-6%) and lake × habitat interaction ('unique diversification': 0.4-13%) for several traits. There was a limited role for historical contingency but a strong signature of selection. We also found higher phenotypic variation in the source populations. Phenotype sorting during colonization and strong divergent selection might have contributed to these rapid changes. Consequently, phenotypic divergence was only weakly influenced by historical contingency.

Publishing year

2009

Language

English

Pages

1098-1110

Publication/Series

Journal of evolutionary biology

Volume

22

Issue

5

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Topic

  • Biological Sciences

Keywords

  • Adaptive radiation
  • Historical contingency
  • Mating propensity
  • Parallel evolution
  • Phenotype sorting
  • Pigmentation

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1420-9101