Lab-meeting on sexual selection, sexual conflict and cross-sexual transfer

It is time for a last lab-meeting before I go to South Africa for field work for three weeks. After a discussion with Jessica Abbott, I thought it would be fun to diskuss a recent conceptual paper by Russel Bonduryansky entitled: "Sexual Selection and Conflict as Engines of Ecological Diversification". You will find a copy of this paper here, and the Abstract below.

Due to other committments, I suggest we meet at 13.30,  not 13.00, in "Argumentet" on Wednesday January 18 2012.Looking forward to see you all and an interesting discussion.

Abstract: Ecological diversification presents an enduring puzzle: how do novel ecological strategies evolve in organisms that are already adapted to their ecological niche? Most attempts to answer this question posit a primary role for genetic drift, which could carry populations through or around fitness "valleys" representing maladaptive intermediate phenotypes between alternative niches. Sexual selection and conflict are thought to play an ancillary role by initiating reproductive isolation and thereby facilitating divergence in ecological traits through genetic drift or local adaptation. Here, I synthesize theory and evidence suggesting that sexual selection and conflict could play a more central role in the evolution and diversification of ecological strategies through the co-optation of sexual traits for viability-related functions. This hypothesis rests on three main premises, all of which are supported by theory and consistent with the available evidence. First, sexual selection and conflict often act at cross-purposes to viability selection, thereby displacing populations from the local viability optimum. Second, sexual traits can serve as preadaptations for novel viability-related functions. Third, ancestrally sex-limited sexual traits can be transferred between sexes. Consequently, by allowing populations to explore a broad phenotypic space around the current viability optimum, sexual selection and conflict could act as powerful drivers of ecological adaptation and diversification.

Lab-meeting on epigenetic inheritance and evolution

Following the suggestions of Machteld Verzijden and Anna Runemark, I suggest we denote next lab-meeting to discuss epigenetic inheritance and its (possible) evolutionary consequences to epigenetic inheritance. I suggest that we discuss two recent papers, one more theoretical in American Naturalist by Troy Day and Russel Bonduriansky which can be found here, and a review in Nature Reviews Genetics by Danchin et al. which can be found here. I post the Abstract of that paper below.

Please read both these papers, and not in the last minute, as it is a difficult topic, but the more we know in advance, the more enlightened will the discussion be.

Note that next lab-mating will take place in "Argumentet" between 10.00 and 12.00 on Tuesday 6 September 2011. After that, our regular lab-meetings will take place between 10.00 and 12.00 on Thursdays. Fika volunteers are always welcome.

Beyond DNA: integrating inclusive inheritance into an extended theory of evolution
Danchin, E (Danchin, Etienne)1; Charmantier, A (Charmantier, Anne)2; Champagne, FA (Champagne, Frances A.)3; Mesoudi, A (Mesoudi, Alex)4; Pujol, B (Pujol, Benoit)1; Blanchet, S (Blanchet, Simon)1,5
Nature Reviews Genetics 12: 475-486
Abstract: Many biologists are calling for an 'extended evolutionary synthesis' that would 'modernize the modern synthesis' of evolution. Biological information is typically considered as being transmitted across generations by the DNA sequence alone, but accumulating evidence indicates that both genetic and non-genetic inheritance, and the interactions between them, have important effects on evolutionary outcomes. We review the evidence for such effects of epigenetic, ecological and cultural inheritance and parental effects, and outline methods that quantify the relative contributions of genetic and non-genetic heritability to the transmission of phenotypic variation across generations. These issues have implications for diverse areas, from the question of missing heritability in human complex-trait genetics to the basis of major evolutionary transitions.

Lab-meeting on intralocus sexual conflict on Wednesday 9 September 2009

This Wednesday (9 September), I thought we should discuss a recent TREE-article about intralocus sexual conflict, its origin and (possible) solution, which you can find here. The authors are Russel Bonduriansky and Steve Chenoweth,the latter Tom Gosden's postdoc host at Queensland University in Australia. It is a timely overview over a rapidly growing field, which was quite evident for those of us who participated in the ESEB-meeting in Turin, where a whole session was dedicated to the fascinating and increasingly popular topic of intralocus sexual conflict.

It was interesting for me to closely have seen this "explosion" of a field, which I have been familiar with for quite a while, but which few (at least in Lund) understood a few years ago, or realized the importance of. I strongly suspect that the term "gender load", which I had difficulties in explaining in some talks I gave in Lund, will soon enter the mainstream language of evolutionary biology. Perhaps future historians of science will see the signs of a minor conceptual and scientific "revolution" here, as people are increasingly viewing the genome not as a peaceful and harmonic and well-functioning "unit", but rather as something is constantly selected in different directions, the end-result becoming a compromise between male and female fitness optima (see figure above).

For those of you want some additional background reading, I can also recommend Robert Cox and Ryan Calsbeek's recent metaanalysis of intralocus sexual conflict, which was published in American Naturalist earlier this year, and which you can find here. You could also download my own paper (co-published with Andrew McAdam and Barry Sinervo) about intralocus sexual conflict over immune defence and how it affects sex-specific signalling in lizards. This paper is in press in Evolution and can be found here.

I suggest that we all read the TREE-review, and those who wants can also study the two other papers as a general background and bring them to the lab-meeting. We meet the usual time: 10.00 on Wednesday morning in "Darwin". Any fika volunteer?