Experimental adaptation to high and low quality environments under different scales of temporal variation
Open Access
- 18 December 2006
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Journal of Evolutionary Biology
- Vol. 20 (1), 296-300
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2006.01195.x
Abstract
We investigated the role of the scale of temporal variation in the evolution of generalism in populations of the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens. Replicate populations were propagated as batch cultures for approximately 1400 generations (192 days), in either high quality media only, low quality media only, or were alternated between the two at a range of temporal scales (between 1 and 48 days). Populations evolved in alternating media showed fitness increases in both media and the rate of alternation during selection had no effect on average fitness in either media. Moreover, the fitness of these populations in high quality media was the same as for populations evolved only in high quality media and likewise for low quality media. Populations evolved only in high or low quality media did not show fitness improvements in their nonselective media. These results indicate that cost‐free generalists can evolve under a wide range of temporal variation.Keywords
This publication has 30 references indexed in Scilit:
- Post‐fire recovery of ant communities in Submediterranean Pinus nigra forestsEcography, 2005
- Studies of Adaptive Radiation Using Model Microbial SystemsThe American Naturalist, 2000
- Experimental evolution in Chlamydomonas. IV. Selection in environments that vary through time at different scalesHeredity, 1998
- Experimental evolution in Chlamydomonas. III. Evolution of specialist and generalist types in environments that vary in space and timeHeredity, 1997
- Experimental evolution in Chlamydomonas. III. Evolution of specialist and generalist types in environments that vary in space and timeHeredity, 1997
- Physical and genetic map of the Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 chromosomeMolecular Microbiology, 1996
- Evolutionary Adaptation to Temperature. III. Adaptation of Escherichia coli to a Temporally Varying EnvironmentEvolution, 1994
- The genetics of phenotypic plasticity. V. Evolution of reaction norm shapeJournal of Evolutionary Biology, 1993
- Long-Term Experimental Evolution in Escherichia coli. I. Adaptation and Divergence During 2,000 GenerationsThe American Naturalist, 1991
- Relative fitness can decrease in evolving asexual populations of S. cerevisiaeNature, 1983