Differential genotype response to increased resource abundance helps explain parallel evolution of Daphnia populations in the wild

Abstract

AbstractUnder controlled laboratory conditions, previous studies have shown that selection can produce repeatable evolutionary trajectories. Yet, the question remains for many of these studies if, given identical starting populations, evolution in the wild proceeds in a non‐random direction. In the present study, we investigated the extent to which rapid evolution in the wild is parallel by monitoring the genetic composition of replicate populations of Daphnia in field mesocosms containing two clonal genotypes. We found parallel changes across all nine mesocosms, in which the same genotype increased in frequency. To probe whether genotype‐specific response to resource abundance could have led to this frequency change, we conducted a life‐history assay under high‐resource abundance and low‐resource abundance. We found that resource exploitation differed by genotype, in that, while one genotype (the winner in the field mesocosms) was more fit than the other genotype at high resources, the other genotype performed slightly better at low resources. We suspect that levels of resource abundance found in the summer field mesocosms had values in which the genotype better with abundant resources had the advantage. These findings suggest that variation in certain traits associated with resource acquisition can drive genotype frequency change.