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Variable environments select for short lifespan

View ORCID ProfileMartin I. Lind, View ORCID ProfileIrja I. Ratikainen, Johan Andersson, Hanne Carlsson, Therese Krieg, Tuuli Larva, View ORCID ProfileAlexei A. Maklakov
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.29.924373
Martin I. Lind
1Animal Ecology, Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
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  • For correspondence: martin.i.lind@gmail.com
Irja I. Ratikainen
2Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics, Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Høgskoleringen 5, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway
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Johan Andersson
1Animal Ecology, Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
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Hanne Carlsson
1Animal Ecology, Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
3School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
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Therese Krieg
1Animal Ecology, Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
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Tuuli Larva
1Animal Ecology, Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
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Alexei A. Maklakov
1Animal Ecology, Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
3School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
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Abstract

The role of environmental variation in the evolution of lifespan is contested. Classic theory suggests that variable environments result in evolution of long life but novel theoretical breakthroughs show that environmental variation can instead select for short lifespan when the changes are rapid relative to generation time. Here we combined simulation modelling and experimental evolution to study the evolution of lifespan in response to temperature variation to provide the first empirical test of the new theory. Genetically diverse populations of the outcrossing nematode Caenorhabditis remanei, were exposed to a novel, stressful temperature for 30 generations, in either stable, slowly increasing or fluctuating temperature regimes. We found evolution of shorter lifespan in populations evolving in rapidly fluctuating environments both in simulation models and in real populations supporting the new theory. While climate warming is predicted to increase environmental stochasticity, our results show that fast temperature cycles rapidly select for short lifespan.

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Posted January 29, 2020.
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Variable environments select for short lifespan
Martin I. Lind, Irja I. Ratikainen, Johan Andersson, Hanne Carlsson, Therese Krieg, Tuuli Larva, Alexei A. Maklakov
bioRxiv 2020.01.29.924373; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.29.924373
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Variable environments select for short lifespan
Martin I. Lind, Irja I. Ratikainen, Johan Andersson, Hanne Carlsson, Therese Krieg, Tuuli Larva, Alexei A. Maklakov
bioRxiv 2020.01.29.924373; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.29.924373

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