Dataset Information

Local adaptation to seasonal cues at the fronts of two parallel, climate-induced butterfly range expansions.

ABSTRACT: Climate change allows species to expand polewards, but non-changing environmental features may limit expansions. Daylength is unaffected by climate and drives life cycle timing in many animals and plants. Because daylength varies over latitudes, poleward-expanding populations must adapt to new daylength conditions. We studied local adaptation to daylength in the butterfly Lasiommata megera, which is expanding northwards along several routes in Europe. Using common garden laboratory experiments with controlled daylengths, we compared diapause induction between populations from the southern-Swedish core range and recently established marginal populations from two independent expansion fronts in Sweden. Caterpillars from the northern populations entered diapause in clearly longer daylengths than those from southern populations, with the exception of caterpillars from one geographically isolated population. The northern populations have repeatedly and rapidly adapted to their local daylengths, indicating that the common use of daylength as seasonal cue need not strongly limit climate-induced insect range expansions.

SUBMITTER: Ittonen M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9544862 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Local adaptation to seasonal cues at the fronts of two parallel, climate-induced butterfly range expansions.

Ittonen Mats M Hagelin Alexandra A Wiklund Christer C Gotthard Karl K

Ecology letters 20220815 9

Climate change allows species to expand polewards, but non-changing environmental features may limit expansions. Daylength is unaffected by climate and drives life cycle timing in many animals and plants. Because daylength varies over latitudes, poleward-expanding populations must adapt to new daylength conditions. We studied local adaptation to daylength in the butterfly Lasiommata megera, which is expanding northwards along several routes in Europe. Using common garden laboratory experiments w ...[more]

PMID: 35965449

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Project description:Populations that expand their range can undergo rapid evolutionary adaptation of life-history traits, dispersal behaviour and adaptation to the local environment. Such adaptation may be aided or hindered by sexual reproduction, depending on the context. However, few empirical and experimental studies have investigated the genetic basis of adaptive evolution during range expansions. Even less attention has been given to the question how sexual reproduction may modulate such adaptive evolution during range expansions. We here studied genomic adaptation during experimental range expansions of the protist Tetrahymena thermophila in landscapes with a uniform environment or a pH gradient. Specifically, we investigated two aspects of genomic adaptation during range expansion. First, we investigated adaptive genetic change in terms of the underlying numbers of allele frequency changes from standing genetic variation and de novo variants. We focused on how sexual reproduction may alter this adaptive genetic change. Second, we identified genes subject to selection caused by the expanding range itself, and directional selection due to the presence or absence of the pH gradient. We focused this analysis on alleles with large frequency changes that occurred in parallel in more than one population to identify the most likely candidate targets of selection. We found that sexual reproduction altered adaptive genetic change both in terms of de novo variants and standing genetic variation. However, sexual reproduction affected allele frequency changes in standing genetic variation only in the absence of long-distance gene flow. Adaptation to the range expansion affected genes involved in cell divisions and DNA repair, whereas adaptation to the pH gradient additionally affected genes involved in ion balance and oxidoreductase reactions. These genetic changes may result from selection on growth and adaptation to low pH. In the absence of gene flow, sexual reproduction may have aided genetic adaptation. Gene flow may have swamped expanding populations with maladapted alleles, thus reducing the extent of evolutionary adaptation during range expansion. Sexual reproduction also altered the genetic basis of adaptation in our evolving populations via de novo variants, possibly by purging deleterious mutations or by revealing fitness benefits of rare genetic variants.

Dataset Information

Local adaptation to seasonal cues at the fronts of two parallel, climate-induced butterfly range expansions.

Publications

Local adaptation to seasonal cues at the fronts of two parallel, climate-induced butterfly range expansions.

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