De Waele Hannah, Vega-Trejo Regina, Vila-Pouca Catarina, Noordenbos Jori, Phillips Elizabeth, Pollux Bart J A, Kotrschal Alexander
Behavioural Ecology Group, Wageningen University & Research, 6708 WD Wageningen, Netherlands.
Department of Biology, Edward Grey Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3SZ, UK.
Sci Adv. 2025 Jun 20;11(25):eadt4063. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adt4063.
Predation is a major evolutionary driver of life history and morphology. However, whether these traits evolve directly via predation or indirect effects is largely unresolved. We used artificial selection to experimentally test the impact of adult predation on the evolution of life history and morphology in guppies (). We found that, compared to control fish, predation-selected fish produced larger offspring and larger broods early in life. However, other life history parameters, such as interbrood interval and total number of offspring, showed no response. We also found that predation selected for smaller and lighter females and for shorter tails and gonopodia in males, with no effect on body coloration. Our results show that while several traits evolve fast under selection on adult predation, several "classic" predation-dependent traits seem unaffected by predation selection. By comparing our experimental results to those from natural populations, we can disentangle the contribution of direct and indirect effects on trait evolution under predation pressure.
捕食是生命史和形态学的主要进化驱动力。然而，这些特征是直接通过捕食还是间接影响而进化，在很大程度上尚未得到解决。我们使用人工选择来实验性地测试成年捕食对孔雀鱼生命史和形态进化的影响。我们发现，与对照鱼相比，经捕食选择的鱼在生命早期产生的后代更大，窝卵数更多。然而，其他生命史参数，如窝卵间隔和后代总数，没有表现出反应。我们还发现，捕食选择出体型更小、更轻的雌性，以及尾巴和交接器更短的雄性，对体色没有影响。我们的结果表明，虽然在成年捕食选择下，一些特征进化迅速，但一些“经典”的依赖捕食的特征似乎不受捕食选择的影响。通过将我们的实验结果与自然种群的结果进行比较，我们可以厘清在捕食压力下直接和间接影响对特征进化的贡献。
