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Hybridization facilitates evolutionary rescue

The resilience of populations to rapid environmental degradation is a major concern for biodiversity conservation. When environments deteriorate to lethal levels, species must evolve to adapt to the new conditions to avoid extinction. Here, we test the hypothesis that evolutionary rescue may be enab...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Stelkens, Rike B, Brockhurst, Michael A, Hurst, Gregory D D, Greig, Duncan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4275092/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25558281
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/eva.12214
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author Stelkens, Rike B
Brockhurst, Michael A
Hurst, Gregory D D
Greig, Duncan
author_facet Stelkens, Rike B
Brockhurst, Michael A
Hurst, Gregory D D
Greig, Duncan
author_sort Stelkens, Rike B
collection PubMed
description The resilience of populations to rapid environmental degradation is a major concern for biodiversity conservation. When environments deteriorate to lethal levels, species must evolve to adapt to the new conditions to avoid extinction. Here, we test the hypothesis that evolutionary rescue may be enabled by hybridization, because hybridization increases genetic variability. Using experimental evolution, we show that interspecific hybrid populations of Saccharomyces yeast adapt to grow in more highly degraded environments than intraspecific and parental crosses, resulting in survival rates far exceeding those of their ancestors. We conclude that hybridization can increase evolutionary responsiveness and that taxa able to exchange genes with distant relatives may better survive rapid environmental change.
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spelling pubmed-42750922015-01-02 Hybridization facilitates evolutionary rescue Stelkens, Rike B Brockhurst, Michael A Hurst, Gregory D D Greig, Duncan Evol Appl Original Articles The resilience of populations to rapid environmental degradation is a major concern for biodiversity conservation. When environments deteriorate to lethal levels, species must evolve to adapt to the new conditions to avoid extinction. Here, we test the hypothesis that evolutionary rescue may be enabled by hybridization, because hybridization increases genetic variability. Using experimental evolution, we show that interspecific hybrid populations of Saccharomyces yeast adapt to grow in more highly degraded environments than intraspecific and parental crosses, resulting in survival rates far exceeding those of their ancestors. We conclude that hybridization can increase evolutionary responsiveness and that taxa able to exchange genes with distant relatives may better survive rapid environmental change. Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2014-12 2014-09-25 /pmc/articles/PMC4275092/ /pubmed/25558281 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/eva.12214 Text en © 2014 The Authors. Evolutionary Applications published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Articles
Stelkens, Rike B
Brockhurst, Michael A
Hurst, Gregory D D
Greig, Duncan
Hybridization facilitates evolutionary rescue
title Hybridization facilitates evolutionary rescue
title_full Hybridization facilitates evolutionary rescue
title_fullStr Hybridization facilitates evolutionary rescue
title_full_unstemmed Hybridization facilitates evolutionary rescue
title_short Hybridization facilitates evolutionary rescue
title_sort hybridization facilitates evolutionary rescue
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4275092/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25558281
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/eva.12214
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