Stressful conditions early in life can give rise to exaggerated stress responses, which, while beneficial in the short term, chronically increase lifetime exposure to stress hormones and elevate disease risk later in life. Using zebra finches [...]
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We outline a descriptive framework of how candidate alleles of the immune system associate with infectious diseases in natural populations of animals. Three kinds of alleles can be separated when both prevalence of infection and infection intensity [...] Large egg size usually boosts offspring survival, but mothers have to trade off egg size against egg number. Therefore, females often produce smaller eggs when environmental conditions for offspring are favourable, which is subsequently compensated [...] Genetic rescue, in which the introduction of one or more unrelated individuals into an inbred population results in the reduction of detrimental genetic effects and an increase in one or more vital rates, is a potentially important management tool [...] Generalist parasites regularly evolve host-specific races that each specialize on one particular host species. Many host-specific races originate from geographically structured populations where local adaptations to different host species drive the [...] Recent evidence indicates that grassland community structure and species diversity are influenced by genetic variation within species. We review what is known regarding the impact of intraspecific diversity on grassland community structure, using an [...] Antagonistic coevolution between hosts and parasites has been proposed as a mechanism maintaining genetic diversity in both host and parasite populations. In particular, the high level of genetic diversity usually observed at the major [...] Niche construction is the process by which organisms construct important components of their local environment in ways that introduce novel selection pressures. Lactase persistence is one of the clearest examples of niche construction in humans. [...] Genetic variation in natural populations is a prime prerequisite allowing populations to respond to selection, but is under constant threat from forces that tend to reduce it, such as genetic drift and many types of selection. Haldane emphasized the [...] |
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