Evidence for genetic isolation and local adaptation in the field cricket Gryllus campestris

Tregenza, T. et al. (2021) Evidence for genetic isolation and local adaptation in the field cricket Gryllus campestris. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 34(10), pp. 1624-1636. (doi: 10.1111/jeb.13911) (PMID:34378263)

Abstract

Understanding how species can thrive in a range of environments is a central challenge for evolutionary ecology. There is strong evidence for local adaptation along large‐scale ecological clines in insects. However, potential adaptation among neighbouring populations differing in their environment has been studied much less. We used RAD sequencing to quantify genetic divergence and clustering of ten populations of the field cricket Gryllus campestris in the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain, and an outgroup on the inland plain. Our populations were chosen to represent replicate high and low altitude habitats. We identified genetic clusters that include both high and low altitude populations indicating that the two habitat types do not hold ancestrally distinct lineages. Using common‐garden rearing experiments to remove environmental effects, we found evidence for differences between high and low altitude populations in physiological and life‐history traits. As predicted by the local adaptation hypothesis, crickets with parents from cooler (high altitude) populations recovered from periods of extreme cooling more rapidly than those with parents from warmer (low altitude) populations. Growth rates also differed between offspring from high and low altitude populations. However, contrary to our prediction that crickets from high altitudes would grow faster, the most striking difference was that at high temperatures, growth was fastest in individuals from low altitudes. Our findings reveal that populations a few tens of kilometres apart have independently evolved adaptations to their environment. This suggests that local adaptation in a range of traits may be commonplace even in mobile invertebrates at scales of a small fraction of species' distributions.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council standard grants: NE/L003635/1, NE/R000328/1 (Tregenza), the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 792215 (Boonekamp), the European Research Council ERC StG-2011_282163 and the Danish Council for Independent Research DFF—6108-00565 (Bilde).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Boonekamp, Dr Jelle
• Authors: Tregenza, T., Rodríguez‐Muñoz, R., Boonekamp, J. J., Hopwood, P. E., Sørensen, J. G., Bechsgaard, J., Settepani, V., Hegde, V., Waldie, C., May, E., Peters, C., Pennington, Z., Leone, P., Munk, E. M., Greenrod, S. T.E., Gosling, J., Coles, H., Gruffydd, R., Capria, L., Potter, L., and Bilde, T.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine
• Journal Name: Journal of Evolutionary Biology
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 1420-9101
• ISSN (Online): 1420-9101
• Published Online: 20 August 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Journal of Evolutionary Biology 34(10):1624-1636
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License