Molecular Ecology最新文献

{"title":"Telomere Length Differences Indicate Climate Change-Induced Stress and Population Decline in a Migratory Bird.","authors":"Marina D Rodriguez, Rachael A Bay, Kristen C Ruegg","doi":"10.1111/mec.17642","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.17642","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Genomic projections of (mal)adaptation under future climate change, known as genomic offset, faces limited application due to challenges in validating model predictions. Individuals inhabiting regions with high genomic offset are expected to experience increased levels of physiological stress as a result of climate change, but documenting such stress can be challenging in systems where experimental manipulations are not possible. One increasingly common method for documenting physiological costs associated with stress in individuals is to measure the relative length of telomeres-the repetitive regions on the caps of chromosomes that are known to shorten at faster rates in more adverse conditions. Here we combine models of genomic offsets with measures of telomere shortening in a migratory bird, the yellow warbler (Setophaga petechia), and find a strong correlation between genomic offset, telomere length and population decline. While further research is needed to fully understand these links, our results support the idea that birds in regions where climate change is happening faster are experiencing more stress and that such negative effects may help explain the observed population declines.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":" ","pages":"e17642"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2025-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142925943","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":"Thrushes in Love: Extensive Gene Flow, With Differential Resistance and Selection, Obscures and Reveals the Evolutionary History of a Songbird Clade.","authors":"Kira E Delmore, Jeffrey M DaCosta, Kevin Winker","doi":"10.1111/mec.17635","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.17635","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The application of high-throughput sequencing to phylogenetic analyses is allowing authors to reconstruct the true evolutionary history of species. This work can illuminate specific mechanisms underlying divergence when combined with analyses of gene flow, recombination and selection. We conducted a phylogenomic analysis of Catharus, a songbird genus with considerable potential for gene flow, variation in migratory behaviour and genomic resources. We documented discordance among trees constructed for mitochondrial, autosomal and sex (Z) chromosome partitions. Two trees were recovered on the Z. Both trees differed from the autosomes, one matched the mitochondria, and the other was unique to the Z. Gene flow with one species likely generated much of this discordance; substantial admixture between ustulatus and the remaining species was documented and linked to at least two historic events. The tree unique to the Z likely reflects the true history of Catharus; local genomic analyses recovered the same tree in autosomal regions with reduced admixture and recombination. Genes previously connected to migration were enriched in these regions suggesting transitions between migratory and non-migratory states helped generate divergence. Migratory (vs. nonmigratory) Catharus formed a monophyletic clade in a subset of genomic regions. Gene flow was elevated in some of these regions suggesting adaptive introgression may have occurred, but the dominant pattern was of balancing selection maintaining ancestral polymorphisms important for olfaction and perhaps, by extension, adaptation to temperate climates. This work illuminates the evolutionary history of an important model in speciation and demonstrates how differential resistance to gene flow can affect local genomic patterns.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":" ","pages":"e17635"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2025-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142918744","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":"Sequence-Based Multi Ancestry Association Study Reveals the Polygenic Architecture of Varroa destructor Resistance in the Honeybee Apis mellifera","authors":"Sonia E. Eynard,&nbsp;Fanny Mondet,&nbsp;Benjamin Basso,&nbsp;Olivier Bouchez,&nbsp;Yves Le Conte,&nbsp;Benjamin Dainat,&nbsp;Axel Decourtye,&nbsp;Lucie Genestout,&nbsp;Matthieu Guichard,&nbsp;François Guillaume,&nbsp;Emmanuelle Labarthe,&nbsp;Barbara Locke,&nbsp;Rachid Mahla,&nbsp;Joachim de Miranda,&nbsp;Markus Neuditschko,&nbsp;Florence Phocas,&nbsp;Kamila Canale-Tabet,&nbsp;Alain Vignal,&nbsp;Bertrand Servin","doi":"10.1111/mec.17637","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.17637","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Honeybees, <i>Apis mellifera</i>, have experienced the full impacts of globalisation, including the recent invasion by the parasitic mite <i>Varroa destructor</i>, now one of the main causes of colony losses worldwide. The strong selection pressure it exerts has led some colonies to develop defence strategies conferring some degree of resistance to the parasite. Assuming these traits are partly heritable, selective breeding of naturally resistant bees could be a sustainable strategy for fighting infestations. To characterise the genetic determinism of varroa resistance, we conducted the largest genome wide association study performed to date on whole genome sequencing of more than 1500 colonies on multiple phenotypes linked to varroa resistance of honeybees. To take into account some genetic diversity of honeybees, colonies belonging to different ancestries representing the main honeybee subspecies in Western Europe were included and analysed both as separate populations and combined in a meta-analysis. The results show that varroa resistance is substantially heritable and polygenic: while 60 significant associations were identified, none explain a substantial part of the trait genetic variance. Overall our study highlights that genomic selection for varroa resistance is promising but that it will not be based on managing a few strong effect mutations and rather use approaches that leverage the genome wide diversity of honeybee populations. From a broader perspective, these results point the way towards understanding the genetic adaptation of eusocial insects to parasite load.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"34 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11754705/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142906343","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":"Genotype-by-Environment Effects of Cis-Variations in the Atgl Promoter Mediate the Divergent Pattern of Phenotypic Plasticity for Temperature Adaptation in Two Congeneric Oyster Species","authors":"Mingyang Du,&nbsp;Chaogang Wang,&nbsp;Zhuxiang Jiang,&nbsp;Rihao Cong,&nbsp;Ao Li,&nbsp;Wei Wang,&nbsp;Guofan Zhang,&nbsp;Li Li","doi":"10.1111/mec.17623","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.17623","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Phenotypic plasticity plays an essential role in adaptive evolution. However, the molecular mechanisms of how genotype-by-environment interaction (G × E) effects shape phenotypic plasticity in marine organisms remain poorly understood. The crucial temperature-responsive trait triacylglycerol (TAG) content and its major gene adipose triglyceride lipase (<i>Atgl</i>) expression have divergent plastic patterns in two congeneric oyster species (<i>Crassostrea gigas</i> and <i>Crassostrea angulata</i>) to adapt to relative-cold/northern and relative-warm/southern habitats, respectively. In this study, eight putative loci were identified in the <i>Atgl</i> promoter region (<i>cis</i>-variations) between wild <i>C. gigas</i> and <i>C. angulata</i> that exhibited differential environmental responsiveness (G × E). The G and G × E effects of each locus were further dissected by measuring the <i>Atgl</i> gene expression of different genotypes in response to temperature changes at the cellular and organismal levels. Two transcription factors, non-environmentally responsive non-POU domain-containing octamer-binding protein (<i>Nono</i>) and environmentally responsive heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein K (<i>Hnrnpk</i>), were screened for binding to g.-1804 (G locus) and g.-1919 (G + G × E locus), respectively. The specificity of <i>Nono</i> binding to the <i>C. angulata</i> allele mediated the G effects of g.-1804, and the lower environmental sensitivity of <i>Hnrnpk</i> in <i>C. angulata</i> mediated the G × E effects of g.-1919, jointly regulating the trade-offs between higher constitutive and lower plastic expression of <i>Atgl</i> gene expression in <i>C. angulata</i>. This study served as an experimental case to reveal how the genetic variations with G and (or) G × E effects propagate into the divergent pattern of plasticity in environmental adaptive traits, which provides new insights into predicting the adaptability of marine organisms to future climate changes.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"34 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142881039","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":"Trans-Specific Polymorphisms Between Cryptic Daphnia Species Affect Fitness and Behavior","authors":"Connor S. Murray,&nbsp;Madison Karram,&nbsp;David J. Bass,&nbsp;Madison Doceti,&nbsp;Dörthe Becker,&nbsp;Joaquin C. B. Nunez,&nbsp;Aakrosh Ratan,&nbsp;Alan O. Bergland","doi":"10.1111/mec.17632","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.17632","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Shared polymorphisms, loci with identical alleles across species, are of unique interest in evolutionary biology as they may represent cases of selection maintaining ancient genetic variation post-speciation, or contemporary selection promoting convergent evolution. In this study, we investigate the abundance of shared polymorphism between two members of the <i>Daphnia pulex</i> species complex. We test whether the presence of shared mutations is consistent with the action of balancing selection or alternative hypotheses such as hybridization, incomplete lineage sorting or convergent evolution. We analyzed over 2,000 genomes from six taxa in the <i>D. pulex</i> species group and examined the prevalence and distribution of shared alleles between the focal species pair, North American and European <i>D. pulex</i>. We show that North American and European <i>D. pulex</i> diverged over 10 million years ago, yet retained tens of thousands of shared polymorphisms. We suggest that the number of shared polymorphisms between North American and European <i>D. pulex</i> cannot be fully explained by hybridization or incomplete lineage sorting alone. We show that most shared polymorphisms could be the product of convergent evolution, that a limited number appear to be old trans-specific polymorphisms, and that balancing selection is affecting convergent and ancient mutations alike. Finally, we provide evidence that a blue wavelength opsin gene with trans-specific polymorphisms has functional effects on behavior and fitness in the wild.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"34 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11754708/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142880602","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":"A Genetic Variant of Delta-9 Desaturase Is Associated With Latitudinal Adaptation in a Coral from the Great Barrier Reef","authors":"Kristina L. Black,&nbsp;Line K. Bay,&nbsp;Mikhail V. Matz","doi":"10.1111/mec.17634","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.17634","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Coral populations across the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) could rapidly adapt to the warming climate if they have standing genetic variation for thermal tolerance. Here, we describe a locus likely involved in latitudinal adaptation of <i>Acropora millepora</i>. This locus shows a steep latitudinal gradient of derived allele frequency increasing at higher latitudes, and harbours a cluster of eight tandemly repeated Δ9-desaturase genes adjacent to a region in the genome where a hard selective sweep likely occurred. In colonies reciprocally transplanted across 4.5° of latitude, the expression of Δ9-desaturase is upregulated at the high-latitude reef. Furthermore, corals from the low-latitude reef bearing the derived Δ9-desaturase allele express the gene more and grow faster than their peers when transplanted to the high-latitude reef. In other organisms ranging from bacteria to fish, Δ9-desaturase is upregulated under cold conditions to adjust membrane fluidity by introducing double bonds into fatty acid chains of membrane lipids. It is therefore plausible that the signal of latitudinal adaptation at the Δ9-desaturase locus is due to its involvement in adaptation to cooler temperatures at higher latitudes.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"34 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142881037","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":"Population Genomics of Adaptive Radiation","authors":"Lucia L. Combrink,&nbsp;Jimena Golcher-Benavides,&nbsp;Alexander L. Lewanski,&nbsp;Jessica A. Rick,&nbsp;William C. Rosenthal,&nbsp;Catherine E. Wagner","doi":"10.1111/mec.17574","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.17574","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Adaptive radiations are rich laboratories for exploring, testing, and understanding key theories in evolution and ecology because they offer spectacular displays of speciation and ecological adaptation. Particular challenges to the study of adaptive radiation include high levels of species richness, rapid speciation, and gene flow between species. Over the last decade, high-throughput sequencing technologies and access to population genomic data have lessened these challenges by enabling the analysis of samples from many individual organisms at whole-genome scales. Here we review how population genomic data have facilitated our knowledge of adaptive radiation in five key areas: (1) phylogenetics, (2) hybridization, (3) timing and rates of diversification, (4) the genomic basis of trait evolution, and (5) the role of genome structure in divergence. We review current knowledge in each area, highlight outstanding questions, and focus on methods that facilitate detection of complex patterns in the divergence and demography of populations through time. It is clear that population genomic data are revolutionising the ability to reconstruct evolutionary history in rapidly diversifying clades. Additionally, studies are increasingly emphasising the central role of gene flow, re-use of standing genetic variation during adaptation, and structural genomic elements as facilitators of the speciation process in adaptive radiations. We highlight hybridization—and the hypothesized processes by which it shapes diversification—and questions seeking to bridge the divide between microevolutionary and macroevolutionary processes as rich areas for future study. Overall, access to population genomic data has facilitated an exciting era in adaptive radiation research, with implications for deeper understanding of fundamental evolutionary processes across the tree of life.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"34 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.17574","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142880598","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":"Random Mating in a Hybrid Zone Between Two Putative Climate-Adapted Bird Lineages With Predicted Mitonuclear Incompatibilities","authors":"Lana M. Austin,&nbsp;J. Nevil Amos,&nbsp;Diana A. Robledo-Ruiz,&nbsp;Jessica W. Zhou,&nbsp;Rohan H. Clarke,&nbsp;Alexandra Pavlova,&nbsp;Paul Sunnucks","doi":"10.1111/mec.17612","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.17612","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Biochemical and evolutionary interactions between mitochondrial and nuclear genomes (‘mitonuclear interactions’) are proposed to underpin fundamental aspects of biology including evolution of sexual reproduction, adaptation and speciation. We investigated the role of pre-mating isolation in maintaining functional mitonuclear interactions in wild populations bearing diverged, putatively co-adapted mitonuclear genotypes. Two lineages of eastern yellow robin <i>Eopsaltria australis</i>—putatively climate-adapted to ‘inland’ and ‘coastal’ climates—differ by ~7% of mitogenome nucleotides, whereas nuclear genome differences are concentrated into a sex-linked region enriched with mitochondrial functions. Female-specific selection and male-mediated gene flow across the hybrid zone where the lineages coexist and interbreed can explain this pattern. It remains unknown whether lineage divergence is driven by intrinsic incompatibilities (particularly in females; Haldane's rule), extrinsic selection, both, or other drivers. We tested whether lineage divergence could be facilitated by non-random mate-pairing with respect to partners' mitolineage and/or mitonuclear genes encoded by the Z sex-chromosome, which differ between the lineages. We used field-, Z-linked- and mitolineage data from two locations where lineages hybridise to test whether females mate disproportionately with (1) males of their own mitolineage and/or bearing similar Z-linked variation, as might be expected if hybrids experience intrinsic incompatibilities, or (2) putatively locally-adapted males, as might be expected under environmental selection. Comparing field observations with simulations provided no evidence of non-random mating, thus drivers of observed population genetic patterns are consistent with reduced female gene flow likely acting post-mating. Future tests of female-biased mortality at different life stages and habitat selection may clarify mechanisms of selection.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"34 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.17612","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142880601","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":"Editorial 2025","authors":"Loren Rieseberg,&nbsp;Benjamin Sibbett,&nbsp;Joanna Freeland,&nbsp;Angel Rivera-Colon","doi":"10.1111/mec.17633","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.17633","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;Molecular Ecology (MEC) remains one of the most influential journals in evolution and ecology. In 2023, the journal published 389 citable items, placing it fourth among 54 journals in Clarivate's Evolutionary Biology category and 11th out of 195 in Ecology. This trend is mirrored in citation counts, with MEC receiving 38,480 citations—ranking fourth in Evolutionary Biology and eighth in Ecology. Other notable metrics include the five-year journal impact factor (5.4), which positions MEC seventh in Evolutionary Biology, and an EigenFactor score of 0.027, ranking fifth in the same category. The EigenFactor reflects the citation frequency of articles published in the last five years. Additionally, Google Scholar's h5-index, which assesses the impact of articles from the past five years, gives MEC an h5-index of 71, placing it fourth among either ecology or evolution journals. While MEC continues to be a hybrid journal, the proportion of citable items that are open access continues to rise, reaching 42% in 2023.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We are pleased to announce that Executive Editor, Dr. Ben Sibbett, has been promoted to co-Editor-in-Chief of &lt;i&gt;Molecular Ecology&lt;/i&gt;. Ben has already assumed many of the responsibilities of an Editor-in-Chief, including managing the Editorial Board, assigning manuscripts to subject editors, making final decisions on manuscripts, and helping to guide journal policies and scientific direction. He has effectively handled these many tasks, while also demonstrating a keen eye for scientific quality. Ben will share the Editor-in-Chief role with Loren Rieseberg, the current Editor-in-Chief.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We also regret to report that senior editor, Pierre Taberlet, has decided to retire from the journal. Pierre has been one of the journal's most distinguished and longest-serving editors (25 years!). In addition to editing regular manuscripts, Pierre served as reviews editor from 2019 to 2021. He also organised several influential special issues that brought new topics to the journal. These include a Special Issue on Environmental DNA in 2012 that provided an overview of this rapidly expanding research area, as well as a follow-up Special Issue in 2021, that described the application of environmental DNA to biomonitoring. Pierre has published extensively in &lt;i&gt;Molecular Ecology&lt;/i&gt; over the years, and he is the journal's all-time most highly cited author! In 2007, he won the Molecular Ecology Prize for his pioneering contributions to the field. We thank Pierre for both his outstanding service to &lt;i&gt;Molecular Ecology&lt;/i&gt; and for publishing many of his scientific discoveries in the journal.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;MEC and MER continued to have a robust social media presence in 2024. The official X (formerly Twitter) account, @molecology, now has nearly 7900 followers, an increase of nearly 500 followers when compared to the previous year. As of November 2024, the account made 164 tweets (including retweets and replies) in 2024, averaging over three posts per week. Of","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.17633","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142876005","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":"Population Dynamics and the Microbiome in a Wild Boreal Mammal: The Snowshoe Hare Cycle and Impacts of Diet, Season and Predation Risk","authors":"Mason R. Stothart,&nbsp;Sophia Lavergne,&nbsp;Laura McCaw,&nbsp;Hardeep Singh,&nbsp;Wilfred de Vega,&nbsp;Katherine Amato,&nbsp;Jocelyn Poissant,&nbsp;Rudy Boonstra","doi":"10.1111/mec.17629","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.17629","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The North American boreal forest is a massive ecosystem, and its keystone herbivore is the snowshoe hare (<i>Lepus americanus</i>). Hares are exposed to considerable environmental extremes in diet and weather, food availability, and predation risk. Gut microbiomes have been suggested to facilitate adaptive animal responses to environmental change, but severe environmental challenges to homeostasis can also disrupt host-microbiome relationships. To better understand gut microbiome contributions to animal acclimation, we studied the faecal bacterial microbiome of wild hares across two types of extreme environmental change that are integral to their natural history: (1) seasonal transitions between summer and winter, and (2) changes over the ~10 year ‘boom-bust’ population cycles that are characterised by shifting food resource availability and predation pressure. When compared to summer, hares in winter had lower bacterial richness and were depleted in 20 families (including Oxalobacteraceae and Christensenellaceae) but enriched for Ruminococcaceae (a family which contains plant fibre degrading bacteria) alongside nine other bacterial groups. Marked bacterial microbiome differences also occurred across phases of the population cycle. Bacterial microbiomes were lower in richness and compositionally distinct in the peak compared to the increase or decline phases of the population cycle. Direct measures of host physiology and diet quality (faecal fibre contents) most strongly supported food resource availability as a mechanism underlying phase-based differences in bacterial communities, but faecal fibre contents could not fully account for bacterial microbiome variation across phases.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"34 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11754720/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142851628","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}