Bonnet Timothée, Morrissey Michael B, de Villemereuil Pierre, Alberts Susan C, Arcese Peter, Bailey Liam D, Boutin Stan, Brekke Patricia, Brent Lauren J N, Camenisch Glauco, Charmantier Anne, Clutton-Brock Tim H, Cockburn Andrew, Coltman David W, Courtiol Alexandre, Davidian Eve, Evans Simon R, Ewen John G, Festa-Bianchet Marco, de Franceschi Christophe, Gustafsson Lars, Höner Oliver P, Houslay Thomas M, Keller Lukas F, Manser Marta, McAdam Andrew G, McLean Emily, Nietlisbach Pirmin, Osmond Helen L, Pemberton Josephine M, Postma Erik, Reid Jane M, Rutschmann Alexis, Santure Anna W, Sheldon Ben C, Slate Jon, Teplitsky Céline, Visser Marcel E, Wachter Bettina, Kruuk Loeske E B
Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, UK.
Science. 2022 May 27;376(6596):1012-1016. doi: 10.1126/science.abk0853. Epub 2022 May 26.
The rate of adaptive evolution, the contribution of selection to genetic changes that increase mean fitness, is determined by the additive genetic variance in individual relative fitness. To date, there are few robust estimates of this parameter for natural populations, and it is therefore unclear whether adaptive evolution can play a meaningful role in short-term population dynamics. We developed and applied quantitative genetic methods to long-term datasets from 19 wild bird and mammal populations and found that, while estimates vary between populations, additive genetic variance in relative fitness is often substantial and, on average, twice that of previous estimates. We show that these rates of contemporary adaptive evolution can affect population dynamics and hence that natural selection has the potential to partly mitigate effects of current environmental change.
适应性进化的速率，即选择对增加平均适合度的遗传变化的贡献，由个体相对适合度的加性遗传方差决定。迄今为止，对于自然种群，该参数几乎没有可靠的估计值，因此尚不清楚适应性进化是否能在短期种群动态中发挥有意义的作用。我们开发并将定量遗传方法应用于来自19个野生鸟类和哺乳动物种群的长期数据集，发现虽然不同种群的估计值有所不同，但相对适合度的加性遗传方差通常很大，平均而言是先前估计值的两倍。我们表明，当代适应性进化的这些速率会影响种群动态，因此自然选择有可能部分减轻当前环境变化的影响。
