Experimental Evolution and Adaptive Dynamics in Diverse Organisms

Experimental evolution employs controlled laboratory or field settings to observe evolutionary processes in real time, enabling direct tests of theoretical predictions about adaptation. By imposing defined selective regimes on microorganisms, invertebrates or viruses over multiple generations, researchers can dissect the genetic basis of adaptive change, characterise the shape of adaptive landscapes and quantify the constraints imposed by pleiotropy and trade-offs. Recent work spans simple systems such as bacterial populations in minimal media to complex interactions among microbial predators and varied prey, revealing common themes of convergent evolution, environment-specific mutational effects and the emergence of generalist or specialist strategies. These findings have broad implications for understanding the evolution of drug resistance, the stability of ecosystem functions and the management of agricultural pests and pathogens. The integration of high-throughput sequencing, phenotypic assays and theoretical models now offers unprecedented resolution of adaptive dynamics and the potential to predict evolutionary trajectories under changing environmental pressures.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Studies in a microbial predator–prey system demonstrated that most adaptive mutations exert prey-specific effects, with only a small fraction showing antagonistic pleiotropy across different bacterial prey. High-throughput experimental evolution combined with genome-wide mutational analyses revealed that relaxed selection on non-target prey can maintain intraspecific variation and inhibit the rise of an all-purpose generalist. These insights underscore the role of prey-specific adaptations in shaping predator performance and preserving diversity in microbial communities.

Experimental Evolution and Adaptive Dynamics in Diverse Organisms publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in experimental evolution and adaptive dynamics in diverse organisms across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Experimental evolution: A research approach that imposes controlled selection regimes on living populations to study adaptation over multiple generations.

Adaptive landscape: A conceptual representation of fitness as a function of genetic or phenotypic variation, used to visualise evolutionary trajectories.

Pleiotropy: The phenomenon by which a single genetic change affects multiple traits.

Antagonistic pleiotropy: A form of pleiotropy in which a mutation confers a benefit in one environment or trait but incurs a cost in another.

Fitness trade-off: A situation in which improvement in one trait or environment leads to reduced performance in another.

Specialist/generalist: A specialist is adapted to perform optimally in a narrow set of conditions, whereas a generalist maintains moderate to high performance across diverse environments.

References

1. The genetic architecture underlying prey-dependent performance in a microbial predator. Nature Communications (2022).
2. Convergent genetic adaptation of Escherichia coli in minimal media leads to pleiotropic divergence. Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences (2024).
3. Fluctuating selection facilitates the discovery of broadly effective but difficult to reach adaptive outcomes in yeast. Evolution Letters (2023).
4. Pleiotropy drives evolutionary repair of the responsiveness of polarized cell growth to environmental cues. Frontiers in Microbiology (2023).