Experimental Evolution

Experimental EvolutionOrganized by Dr Paul Sniegowski, Dr Thomas Bataillon and Professor Paul JoyceBiology Letters Special Feature 2013 All articles in this special feature are FREE TO ACCESS online Recent decades have seen a significant rise in studies in which evolution is observed and analysed directly – as it happens — under replicated, controlled conditions. Such ‘experimental evolution’ approaches offer a

Experimental Evolution
Organized by Dr Paul Sniegowski, Dr Thomas Bataillon and Professor Paul Joyce

Biology Letters Special Feature 2013

All articles in this special feature are FREE TO ACCESS online

Recent decades have seen a significant rise in studies in which evolution is observed and analysed directly – as it happens — under replicated, controlled conditions. Such ‘experimental evolution’ approaches offer a degree of resolution of evolutionary processes and their underlying genetics that is difficult or even impossible to achieve in more traditional comparative and retrospective analyses. In principle, experimental populations can be monitored for phenotypic and genetic changes with any desired level of replication and measurement precision, facilitating progress on fundamental and previously unresolved questions in evolutionary biology. This special feature brings together 10 invited papers in which experimental evolution is making significant progress on a variety of fundamental questions.

Introduction – As it happens: current directions in experimental evolution
Thomas Bataillon, Paul Joyce and Paul Sniegowski

Temperature, stress and spontaneous mutation in Caenorhabditis briggsae and Caenorhabditis elegans
Chikako Matsuba, Dejerianne G. Ostrow, Matthew P. Salomon, Amit Tolani and Charles F. Baer

Mutational effects depend on ploidy level: all else is not equal
Aleeza Gerstein

Genetic background affects epistatic interactions between two beneficial mutations
Yinhua Wang, Carolina Díaz Arenas, Daniel M. Stoebel and Tim F. Cooper

Epistasis between mutations is host-dependent for an RNA virus
Jasna Lalic and Santiago F. Elena

The role of ‘soaking’ in spiteful toxin production in Pseudomonas aeruginosa
R. Fredrik Inglis, Alex R. Hall and Angus Buckling

Experimental evolution of multicellularity using microbial pseudo-organisms
David C. Queller and Joan E. Strassmann

Model and test in a fungus of the probability that beneficial mutations survive drift
Danna R. Gifford, J. Arjan G. M. de Visser and Lindi M. Wahl

Evolution of clonal populations approaching a fitness peak
Isabel Gordo and Paulo R. A. Campos

Evolutionary rescue of a green alga kept in the dark
Graham Bell

Competition and the origins of novelty: experimental evolution of niche-width expansion in a virus
Lisa M. Bono, Catharine L. Gensel, David W. Pfennig and Christina L. Burch