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Human-caused habitat fragmentation can drive rapid divergence of male genitalia

The aim of this study rests on three premises: (i) humans are altering ecosystems worldwide, (ii) environmental variation often influences the strength and nature of sexual selection, and (iii) sexual selection is largely responsible for rapid and divergent evolution of male genitalia. While each of...

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Autores principales: Heinen-Kay, Justa L, Noel, Holly G, Layman, Craig A, Langerhans, R Brian
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4275096/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25558285
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/eva.12223
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author Heinen-Kay, Justa L
Noel, Holly G
Layman, Craig A
Langerhans, R Brian
author_facet Heinen-Kay, Justa L
Noel, Holly G
Layman, Craig A
Langerhans, R Brian
author_sort Heinen-Kay, Justa L
collection PubMed
description The aim of this study rests on three premises: (i) humans are altering ecosystems worldwide, (ii) environmental variation often influences the strength and nature of sexual selection, and (iii) sexual selection is largely responsible for rapid and divergent evolution of male genitalia. While each of these assertions has strong empirical support, no study has yet investigated their logical conclusion that human impacts on the environment might commonly drive rapid diversification of male genital morphology. We tested whether anthropogenic habitat fragmentation has resulted in rapid changes in the size, allometry, shape, and meristics of male genitalia in three native species of livebearing fishes (genus: Gambusia) inhabiting tidal creeks across six Bahamian islands. We found that genital shape and allometry consistently and repeatedly diverged in fragmented systems across all species and islands. Using a model selection framework, we identified three ecological consequences of fragmentation that apparently underlie observed morphological patterns: decreased predatory fish density, increased conspecific density, and reduced salinity. Our results demonstrate that human modifications to the environment can drive rapid and predictable divergence in male genitalia. Given the ubiquity of anthropogenic impacts on the environment, future research should evaluate the generality of our findings and potential consequences for reproductive isolation.
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spelling pubmed-42750962015-01-02 Human-caused habitat fragmentation can drive rapid divergence of male genitalia Heinen-Kay, Justa L Noel, Holly G Layman, Craig A Langerhans, R Brian Evol Appl Original Articles The aim of this study rests on three premises: (i) humans are altering ecosystems worldwide, (ii) environmental variation often influences the strength and nature of sexual selection, and (iii) sexual selection is largely responsible for rapid and divergent evolution of male genitalia. While each of these assertions has strong empirical support, no study has yet investigated their logical conclusion that human impacts on the environment might commonly drive rapid diversification of male genital morphology. We tested whether anthropogenic habitat fragmentation has resulted in rapid changes in the size, allometry, shape, and meristics of male genitalia in three native species of livebearing fishes (genus: Gambusia) inhabiting tidal creeks across six Bahamian islands. We found that genital shape and allometry consistently and repeatedly diverged in fragmented systems across all species and islands. Using a model selection framework, we identified three ecological consequences of fragmentation that apparently underlie observed morphological patterns: decreased predatory fish density, increased conspecific density, and reduced salinity. Our results demonstrate that human modifications to the environment can drive rapid and predictable divergence in male genitalia. Given the ubiquity of anthropogenic impacts on the environment, future research should evaluate the generality of our findings and potential consequences for reproductive isolation. Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2014-12 2014-10-31 /pmc/articles/PMC4275096/ /pubmed/25558285 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/eva.12223 Text en © 2014 The Authors. Evolutionary Applications published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 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
Heinen-Kay, Justa L
Noel, Holly G
Layman, Craig A
Langerhans, R Brian
Human-caused habitat fragmentation can drive rapid divergence of male genitalia
title Human-caused habitat fragmentation can drive rapid divergence of male genitalia
title_full Human-caused habitat fragmentation can drive rapid divergence of male genitalia
title_fullStr Human-caused habitat fragmentation can drive rapid divergence of male genitalia
title_full_unstemmed Human-caused habitat fragmentation can drive rapid divergence of male genitalia
title_short Human-caused habitat fragmentation can drive rapid divergence of male genitalia
title_sort human-caused habitat fragmentation can drive rapid divergence of male genitalia
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4275096/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25558285
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/eva.12223
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