Microevolutionary change in wild stickleback: Using integrative time-series data to infer responses to selection

What is it about?

Traits of wild animals can change over contemporary timescales, but concluding that evolution played a role requires demonstrating that trait change is linked to genetic change. This is because while selection acts on organisms’ traits, evolution in the strict sense is a process resulting in changes to the genome. But natural selection operating in natural ecosystems rarely acts in a single direction, and many factors that cause selection vary through time. We study wild stickleback in a well-studied lake to characterize how the genetics of correlated traits respond to different types of selection (e.g., directional or fluctuating). Our study clearly demonstrates how evolutionary processes cause trait change in the wild on a contemporary timescale.

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Photo by Nicola Abraham on Unsplash

Photo by Nicola Abraham on Unsplash