Molecular Ecology最新文献

{"title":"When Clades Collide: Genomic Admixture in Blacklegged Ticks (Ixodes scapularis) From the Great Plains.","authors":"Kaylee S Herzog, Zach Pella, Halie Smith, Dayna McCormick, Lily Nuss, Amanda Brinkworth, Sujata S Chaudhari, Kathryn Duncan, Kellee Sundstrom, Sydney Stein, Holly Black, Jose E Pietri, Ryan C Smith, Jeff Hamik, Roberto Cortiñas, Joseph R Fauver","doi":"10.1111/mec.70577","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.70577","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Ixodes scapularis ticks transmit a number of pathogens important to human health, including Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, the causative agent of Lyme disease. While I. scapularis is found across the Eastern United States, Lyme disease transmission is largely limited to the Northeast and Upper Midwest and is nearly absent in the South. This indicates that differences in northern versus southern clades of I. scapularis are associated with differences in Lyme disease transmission risk. Ixodes scapularis is undergoing range expansion, including into the Great Plains region of the United States. Determining where I. scapularis populations in the Great Plains originated can inform future risk of Lyme disease transmission in this region. In this study, we use a population genomics framework to characterize diversity, structure and B. burgdorferi infection rates of I. scapularis populations in the Great Plains region. We generated whole genome sequence data and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) datasets from I. scapularis ticks collected in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota to compare to publicly available data from across the species' range. Our analysis of 200 I. scapularis SNP datasets indicated geographically well-defined populations that correspond to historical northern and southern ancestral clades of I. scapularis. Ticks from South Dakota, Iowa and northeastern Nebraska are genetically similar populations from the Upper Midwest, while ticks from Kansas are more genetically similar to ticks from the Southeast. Ticks collected in the east central region of Nebraska, however, represent an evenly admixed population of both northern and southern genomic backgrounds. Analysis of B. burgdorferi reads from genomic datasets shows ~50% infection rate in ticks from Iowa and northeastern Nebraska, whereas ticks from Kansas show no evidence of B. burgdorferi infection. Of note, evenly admixed ticks from the east central region of Nebraska also show no evidence of B. burgdorferi infection. These results provide further evidence that tick genomics may influence traits associated with B. burgdorferi infection status, and thus the potential for Lyme disease transmission. As the range of I. scapularis continues to expand, bringing historically isolated populations into contact, there is a clear need to understand the consequence of genomic admixture for B. burgdorferi transmission potential to inform future risk of Lyme disease in the United States.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 19","pages":"e70577"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13643498/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149101559","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Limited Lifetime Costs of Inbreeding in a Large Wild Population of Superb Fairy-Wrens.","authors":"Jennifer Evans, Helen Osmond, Alexander Mikheyev, Loeske Kruuk, Andrew Cockburn","doi":"10.1111/mec.70564","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.70564","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Inbreeding depression can have major negative effects on both individual fitness and population performance. The impact of inbreeding depression in wild populations remains poorly understood, and our knowledge is primarily based on estimations in insular populations with limited dispersal, which has been predicted to enhance the capacity for outcrossing. Limited migration and small population sizes, which make insular and endangered populations tractable models for fieldwork, often experience low genetic variation and may be subject to stronger inbreeding effects. Estimating inbreeding effects is difficult in many populations because pedigrees of migrants are unknown. Genomic data offer methods to estimate realised inbreeding even in migrants. Here, we apply genomic methods to a superb fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus) population that has been subject to detailed study of fitness variation over three decades. The population has sex-biased dispersal, resulting in many immigrant females. We use genomic inbreeding estimates to explicitly test for inbreeding depression across several key components of individual fitness, including nestling condition, juvenile survival and adult traits. Genomic methods were able to recover previous pedigree-based findings of inbreeding depression in early nestling condition and additionally identified some evidence for inbreeding depression in fledgling but not juvenile mortality. The only adult fitness trait affected, male extra-pair paternity, is highly variable and under strong sexual selection. Our findings suggest that natural populations experiencing high effective population sizes and regular dispersal might be less affected by inbreeding depression than previously assumed based on studies of often insular and smaller populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 19","pages":"e70564"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13655492/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149164506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Citizen Sailors Provide a Detailed Map of Open-Ocean Surface Biodiversity and Help Link eDNA Data to Satellite Observations","authors":"Pablo Saenz-Agudelo,&nbsp;Olivier Laroche,&nbsp;Ben Knight,&nbsp;Erin Bomati,&nbsp;Xavier Pochon","doi":"10.1111/mec.70571","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.70571","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Characterizing open ocean biodiversity at basin scales remains challenging due to sparse sampling and limited opportunities to validate satellite-derived estimates of plankton community composition. Through the Citizens of the Sea initiative, we deployed standardized environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling kits on 27 sailing vessels during the 2024 Pacific Rally circumnavigating between New Zealand, Tonga, and Fiji, generating 728 surface ocean eDNA samples across 1.5 million km². Using three complementary metabarcoding markers (bacterial 16S rRNA, eukaryotic 18S rRNA and metazoan Cytochrome Oxidase I genes), and following rigorous bioinformatic quality control, we obtained 31,177 unique Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs), providing the first high-resolution plankton biodiversity assessment of this understudied region. After accounting for human-derived variation, all metabarcoding markers revealed clear latitudinal patterns in alpha diversity and community composition. ASV richness increased significantly with sea-surface temperature and community turnover was strongly correlated with gradients in temperature and chlorophyll-a. Comparisons between eDNA-inferred phytoplankton functional groups and satellite-based estimates showed moderate agreement for prokaryote-dominated communities (<i>R</i>² = 0.27) but a weak correlation for eukaryotic phytoplankton (<i>R</i>² &lt; 0.15), reflecting functional-type-specific mismatches between molecular and remote sensing approaches. Our results reinforce that citizen science fleets can generate high-quality oceanographic eDNA datasets at scales unattainable by research expeditions, while demonstrating the strong potential of these initiatives to bridge molecular observations with satellite-derived assessments and improve our understanding of open ocean plankton biodiversity.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 19","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13624691/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149079053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Winter Caching of Artemisia frigida Is Associated With Host Physiological and Gut Microbial Variation in Brandt's Voles","authors":"Tingbei Bo,&nbsp;Xianhui Liu,&nbsp;Min Liu,&nbsp;Wenjing Shen,&nbsp;Xin Zhang,&nbsp;Hangyu Guo,&nbsp;Jing Wen","doi":"10.1111/mec.70576","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.70576","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Seasonal variation in food resources represents a major ecological challenge for wild herbivores, yet how naturally selected dietary resources become associated with host and microbial responses remains poorly understood. During winter, Brandt's voles (<i>Lasiopodomys brandtii</i>) cache large amounts of <i>Artemisia frigida</i>, suggesting that this plant may have ecological significance beyond its nutritional value. However, the biological basis underlying this seasonal food preference remains unclear. Here, using Brandt's voles as a model system, we investigated whether the naturally selected winter food <i>A. frigida</i> was associated with coordinated variation in host physiology and gut microbial organization under cold conditions. By integrating physiological phenotyping, hypothalamic neuroendocrine analyses, adipose tissue transcriptomics, shotgun metagenomics and metagenomic binning, we characterized host and microbial responses across multiple biological levels. Dietary <i>A. frigida</i> was associated with altered hypothalamic <i>AgRP</i> expression, increased <i>UCP1</i> expression in BAT and transcriptional changes related to lipid metabolism and thermogenic pathways during cold exposure. Supplement of <i>A. frigida</i> was associated with changes in gut microbial community structure, enrichment of specific bacterial taxa and shifts in predicted microbial functional potential. Genome-resolved analyses further reconstructed 277 non-redundant metagenome-assembled genomes, enabling assessment of microbial ecological variation associated with seasonal food conditions. Together, our findings provide molecular ecological evidence linking winter caching of <i>A. frigida</i> with coordinated variation in host physiology and gut microbial organization, highlighting seasonal dietary resources as an overlooked component of ecological variation in wildlife.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 19","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149079101","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Validating Wing Biopsies for Blood-Borne Pathogen Characterization in Bats","authors":"Molly C. Simonis,&nbsp;Amanda Vicente-Santos,&nbsp;Lauren R. Lock,&nbsp;Kristin E. Dyer,&nbsp;Beckett L. Olbrys,&nbsp;M. Brock Fenton,&nbsp;Karen E. Sears,&nbsp;Dmitriy V. Volokhov,&nbsp;Nancy B. Simmons,&nbsp;Daniel J. Becker","doi":"10.1111/mec.70560","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70560","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Wildlife surveillance is critical for tracking disease emergence, characterizing pathogen diversity, and assessing spillover risks. Blood-borne pathogens are of particular interest for such efforts due to their global distribution, broad host taxa, and zoonotic potential. Despite the need to monitor blood-borne pathogens, blood collection is costly for biologists and sampled wildlife (i.e., time-consuming and stressful), hindering our ability to expand surveillance efforts. Using vascular tissues to detect infections can minimize sampling effort and stress on wildlife, but it is unclear how pathogen detection and characterization from these tissues compared to blood. To evaluate the reliability of using vascular tissues for detecting blood-borne pathogens in wildlife, we collected paired samples of blood and wing biopsies from common vampire bats (<i>Desmodus rotundus</i>) and molecularly screened for bartonellae, hemotropic mycoplasmas (hemoplasmas), and trypanosomes. Probabilities of detection were lower in wing tissues than in blood for all pathogens, possibly due to blood vessel avoidance when collecting the former. However, we detected infection in wing tissues of at least two individual bats for each pathogen. Paired-positive individuals mostly showed high sequence concordance between tissues, and sample sizes needed to detect a single infection and observed prevalences were similar (i.e., <i>n</i> = 10–39). Due to lower probabilities of infection in wing tissues compared to blood, we suggest that using these samples to estimate infection prevalence of blood-borne pathogens is not ideal. However, our results demonstrate that vascular tissues can be used for initial pathogen assessment and discovery to help target surveillance efforts in the future.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 19","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.70560","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149068118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Polyphenism Through RNA Chemical Modifications","authors":"Ralf Schneider,&nbsp;Ehsan Pashay Ahi","doi":"10.1111/mec.70553","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70553","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Polyphenism, the capacity of a single genotype to produce discrete phenotypes in response to environmental cues, has long served as a model for understanding developmental plasticity. While classical studies have highlighted hormonal signalling and transcription-factor-driven gene regulatory networks that mediate these environmentally induced shifts, recent advances have uncovered a new layer of gene regulation through chemical modifications of RNA molecules. These RNA modifications, collectively known as epitranscriptomic marks, have been shown to respond to environmental signals and modulate RNA fate. Despite their regulatory potential, their involvement in polyphenic systems remains largely unexplored. Here, we synthesize evidence suggesting that RNA modifications may form a dynamic, context-sensitive interface linking environmental inputs to phenotypic expression and developmental commitment in polyphenic systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 19","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.70553","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149068181","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Priority Effects Shape Interactions Between Invasive Parasites in Darwin's Finches of the Galápagos Islands","authors":"Alexandria Soldo,&nbsp;Ryan P. Shannon,&nbsp;Ashley C. Love,&nbsp;Sabrina McNew,&nbsp;Jaime A. Chaves,&nbsp;Sarah A. Knutie","doi":"10.1111/mec.70548","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70548","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Invasive parasites are a major threat to naïve, island hosts. Furthermore, hosts often deal with multiple parasite taxa (hereon, co-parasitism), which can directly compete with each other or indirectly interact through the hosts' immune system (i.e., priority effects). Several introduced parasite taxa, such as the hematophagous avian vampire fly (<i>Philornis downsi</i>) and avian pox virus, have established in the Galápagos Islands and negatively affect endemic birds, such as Darwin's finches. The overall objective of our study was to understand the dynamics between avian vampire flies and avian pox in small ground finches (<i>Geospiza fuliginosa</i>). First, we tested and found the presence of two avian pox strains in nestlings, their mothers, and larval files. Our results suggest that avian pox is not transmitted vertically because strains did not match between nestlings and their mothers; however, larval flies have transmission potential because their strains matched their respective host. Fly abundance was also experimentally manipulated to determine the effect of fly parasitism on pox prevalence in nestlings. We found that vampire flies, depending on their abundance, may inhibit and facilitate pox establishment. Nestlings without flies were more likely to test positive for pox than nestlings with intermediate fly abundances, suggesting that priority effects inhibit or delay the establishment of pox. However, priority effects appeared to shift to facilitation of pox establishment in nestlings with high fly abundances. Our study presents evidence for inhibitory and facilitatory priority effects of early-life fly parasitism on risk of pox infection in nestling finches.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 19","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149068307","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Blocks of Identity by Descent Reveal the Dual Role Played by Reef Fish Larvae for Retention and Dispersal","authors":"Nina Tombers,&nbsp;Francisco Campuzano-Jiménez,&nbsp;Martin Helmkampf,&nbsp;Janina Fuß,&nbsp;W. Owen McMillan,&nbsp;Oscar Puebla","doi":"10.1111/mec.70569","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70569","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;Isolation by distance, whereby genetic distance between individuals or populations increases with geographic distance, is a fundamental population genetic pattern that is observed across a broad range of taxa and spatial scales. This pattern can be driven by dispersal limitation and be thereby informative about dispersal rate (&lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;math&gt;\u0000 &lt;semantics&gt;\u0000 &lt;mrow&gt;\u0000 &lt;mi&gt;σ&lt;/mi&gt;\u0000 &lt;/mrow&gt;\u0000 &lt;annotation&gt;$$ sigma $$&lt;/annotation&gt;\u0000 &lt;/semantics&gt;&lt;/math&gt;), a parameter of both basic and applied interest. Yet isolation by distance is typically directly estimated from microsatellite or single nucleotide polymorphism data, which does not permit the direct estimation of &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;math&gt;\u0000 &lt;semantics&gt;\u0000 &lt;mrow&gt;\u0000 &lt;mi&gt;σ&lt;/mi&gt;\u0000 &lt;/mrow&gt;\u0000 &lt;annotation&gt;$$ sigma $$&lt;/annotation&gt;\u0000 &lt;/semantics&gt;&lt;/math&gt; or allow to disentangle dispersal limitation from other processes. Blocks of identity by descent (IBD) provide another lens through which isolation by distance may be viewed, and the opportunity to overcome these limitations. Here, we apply this framework to the barred hamlet (&lt;i&gt;Hypoplectrus puella&lt;/i&gt;), a reef fish with a 3-week planktonic larval phase. We consider two spatial scales, a continuous stretch of 200 km of reef along the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef in Belize and the Greater Caribbean across &gt; 3000 km. The isolation by distance patterns show a good fit with theoretical expectations in Belize, and provide a recent &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;math&gt;\u0000 &lt;semantics&gt;\u0000 &lt;mrow&gt;\u0000 &lt;mi&gt;σ&lt;/mi&gt;\u0000 &lt;/mrow&gt;\u0000 &lt;annotation&gt;$$ sigma $$&lt;/annotation&gt;\u0000 &lt;/semantics&gt;&lt;/math&gt; estimate of 31 &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;math&gt;\u0000 &lt;semantics&gt;\u0000 &lt;mrow&gt;\u0000 &lt;mi&gt;km&lt;/mi&gt;\u0000 &lt;mo&gt;/&lt;/mo&gt;\u0000 &lt;msqrt&gt;\u0000 &lt;mi&gt;gen&lt;/mi&gt;\u0000 &lt;/msqrt&gt;\u0000 &lt;/mrow&gt;\u0000 &lt;annotation&gt;$$ mathrm{km}/sqrt{mathrm{gen}} $$&lt;/annotation&gt;\u0000 &lt;/semantics&gt;&lt;/math&gt; (95% confidence interval 23–40). The data also show a good fit with theoretical expectations at the Greater Caribbean scale, which is remarkable given the patchy nature of coral reef habitat at this scale, and provide a recent &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;math&gt;\u0000 &lt;semantics&gt;\u0000 &lt;mrow&gt;\u0000 &lt;mi&gt;σ&lt;/mi&gt;\u0000 &lt;/mrow&gt;\u0000 &lt;annotation&gt;$$ sigma $$&lt;/annotation&gt;\u0000 &lt;/semantics&gt;&lt;/math&gt; estimate of 248 &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;math&gt;\u0000 &lt;semantics&gt;\u0000 &lt;mrow&gt;\u0000 &lt;mi&gt;km&lt;/mi&gt;\u0000 &lt;mo&gt;/&lt;/mo&gt;\u0000 &lt;msqrt&gt;\u0000 &lt;mi&gt;gen&lt;/mi&gt;\u0000 &lt;/msqrt&gt;\u0000 &lt;/mrow&gt;\u0000 &lt;annotation&gt;$$ mathrm{km}/sqrt{","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 19","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.70569","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149068308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Genomic Structure Predicts Granulovirus Resistance Without a Detectable Life-History Trade-Off in Plodia interpunctella","authors":"P. Signe White,&nbsp;Johnathan Lo,&nbsp;Jonathan Barajas,&nbsp;Hailey Burnsed,&nbsp;Noah Parker,&nbsp;Zucel Rodriguez,&nbsp;Natalie Walzer,&nbsp;Peter H. Sudmant,&nbsp;Mike Boots","doi":"10.1111/mec.70563","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70563","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Understanding the genetic architecture of pathogen resistance and its relationship to host life-history traits is a fundamental problem in evolutionary biology, yet the conditions under which resistance costs manifest as detectable trade-offs remain poorly understood. Here, we examine resistance in <i>Plodia interpunctella</i> (Indian meal moth) to its granulovirus (PiGV) across 12 inbred lines maintained without deliberate pathogen exposure, alongside an independently assembled outbred stock population as a genomic reference. We quantify resistance using LD50 values from dose–response assays, summarize developmental life-history variation using a composite principal-component axis derived from pupal weight, development time and growth rate, and evaluate genomic structure and window-level associations with resistance. Resistance varied approximately two-fold across inbred lines. Neither the composite life-history axis nor any individual life-history trait was significantly correlated with LD50. In contrast, genomic PC1, the primary axis of CDS-restricted genomic differentiation, was significantly associated with resistance (<i>r</i> = −0.65, <i>p</i> = 0.022), whereas overall pairwise distance was not. No individual PCA-LD50 window survived multiple-testing correction; instead, resistance-associated signal was distributed broadly across the genome, and convergent signal spanning five chromosomes showed no enrichment for genes with known immune functions. This pattern is consistent with a diffuse, potentially polygenic basis for resistance, although the modest number of lines limits locus-level inference. Together with prior work demonstrating resistance-growth trade-offs in this system, our results suggest that resistance can be genomically structured without detectable coupling to the developmental life-history variation measured here, and that expression of resistance costs depends on genetic and environmental context.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 19","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.70563","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149068210","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cline Widths, Barriers to Gene Flow and Reproductive Isolation: A Comment on Gippner et al. 2026","authors":"Roger Butlin,&nbsp;Sean Stankowski","doi":"10.1111/mec.70558","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70558","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Hybrid zones provide opportunities to study the operation of barriers to gene flow as they play out in natural environments. However, comparative analysis is difficult because both hybrid zones and the methods used to analyse them vary widely. Gippner et al. (2026) brought together data on 108 animal hybrid zones. They argued that cline width in these zones provides a proxy for reproductive isolation (RI). Here, we comment on what cline widths do and don't tell us about the evolutionary progression towards the completion of speciation.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 19","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.70558","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149068306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}