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Demographic feedbacks during evolutionary rescue can slow or speed adaptive evolution.

Jeremy A Draghi1, Joel W McGlothlin1, Holly K Kindsvater2

  • 1Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24060, USA.

Proceedings. Biological Sciences
|February 14, 2024
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Evolutionary rescue allows populations to adapt and survive extinction. This study models how generation time changes with population size, predicting adaptation rates under environmental stress.

Keywords:
adaptationdemographyevolutionary rescueevolutionary theory

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Area of Science:

  • Population genetics
  • Ecology
  • Evolutionary biology

Background:

  • Populations facing extinction can be saved by genetic adaptation, a process known as evolutionary rescue.
  • Predicting evolutionary rescue is crucial for conservation and medicine, requiring an understanding of environmental stress impacts on populations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To derive a model predicting how generation time changes with population size during evolutionary rescue.
  • To integrate the effects of intraspecific competition and maladaptation on birth and death rates.

Main Methods:

  • Developed a mathematical expression for generation time variation during evolutionary rescue.
  • Compared analytical predictions with individual-based simulations to validate the model.

Main Results:

  • The model predicts that generation time changes can significantly alter adaptation rates, either positively or negatively.
  • Simulations confirmed that the tolerable rate of environmental change varies as predicted by the analytical results.

Conclusions:

  • Generation time is a key factor influencing the rate of evolution during rescue.
  • These findings aid in understanding wildlife adaptation to climate change, disease dynamics, and pathogen resistance.