6533b7dafe1ef96bd126f4f0
RESEARCH PRODUCT
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subject
0106 biological sciences0301 basic medicineExperimental evolutionEcologyBiologyGeneralist and specialist speciesbiology.organism_classification010603 evolutionary biology01 natural sciences03 medical and health sciences030104 developmental biology13. Climate actionAdaptationConstant (mathematics)Biological systemEcology Evolution Behavior and SystematicsBacteriaNature and Landscape Conservationdescription
Rapid environmental fluctuations are ubiquitous in the wild, yet majority of experimental studies mostly consider effects of slow fluctuations on organism. To test the evolutionary consequences of fast fluctuations, we conducted nine independent experimental evolution experiments with bacteria. Experimental conditions were same for all species, and we allowed them to evolve either in fluctuating temperature alternating rapidly between 20°C and 40°C or at constant 30°C temperature. After experimental evolution, we tested the performance of the clones in both rapid fluctuation and in constant environments (20°C, 30°C and 40°C). Results from experiments on these nine species were combined meta-analytically. We found that overall the clones evolved in the fluctuating environment had evolved better efficiency in tolerating fluctuations (i.e., they had higher yield in fluctuating conditions) than the clones evolved in the constant environment. However, we did not find any evidence that fluctuation-adapted clones would have evolved better tolerance to any measured constant environments (20°C, 30°C, and 40°C). Our results back up recent empirical findings reporting that it is hard to predict adaptations to fast fluctuations using tolerance curves.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-02-14 | Ecology and Evolution |