Genomic parallelism defines repeated evolution of an inducible offense.

ABSTRACT: A common developmental response to resource competition is an inducible offense, the facultative predation of competitors. At its extreme, this response involves the development of alternative phenotypic morphs, or polyphenism. However, how polyphenism evolves to meet ecological challenges, such as competitor species, is unknown. Using replicated experimental evolution, during which starved nematodes could consume heterospecific competitors, we investigated whether induction of a predatory morph could evolve and how generalizable this change's genetic basis is. Fifty generations of evolution across multiple populations resulted in parallel changes in higher morph-induction and parallel genomic responses, including repeated selection for a specific transcription-factor binding-site variant.

SUBMITTER: Levis NA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12533638 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature