Foraging herbivores must meet nutritional requirements by not only finding enough plant biomass to consume, but also finding plants with high protein content and low concentrations of potentially toxic plant secondary metabolites (PSMs). Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter, sage-grouse) are sagebrush obligate herbivores that consume relatively high concentrations of PSMs. ...

Genetic variation for quantitative traits is often greater than that expected to be maintained by mutation in the face of purifying natural selection. One possible explanation for this observed variation is the action of heterogeneous natural selection in the wild. Here we report that selection on quantitative trait loci (QTL) for fitness traits in the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana d...

Ratites (ostriches Struthio camelus) and ungulates (red deer Cervus elaphus scoticus and goats Capra hircus) were presented with 14 indigenous shrubs in cafeteriastyle trials. The shrubs represented the spectrum of woody plant architecture, ranging from broadleaved monopodial species through to small-leaved highly branched divaricates. Trials were stopped when almost all shoots of the plant exp...

Trait differences between species may be attributable to natural selection. However, quantifying the strength of evidence for selection acting on a particular trait is a difficult task. Here we develop a population genetics test for selection acting on a quantitative trait that is based on multiple-line crosses. We show that using multiple lines increases both the power and the scope of selecti...

.co m) . was displayed by Terminalia chebula seed extract against B. cereus. In fact, this plant extract (both aqueous and ethanolic) could inhibit all the bacterial strains investigated. Out of 50 aqueous extracts, 16 extracts showed activity against any one of grampositive bacteria, while only 10 extracts showed activity against any one of gram-negative bacteria. The plant extracts inhibited ...

Both ecological and evolutionary processes can influence community assembly and stability, and native community members may respond both ecologically and evolutionarily as additional species enter established communities. Biological invasions provide a unique opportunity to examine these responses of native community members to novel species additions. Here, I use reciprocal transplant experime...

The study of plant and animal remains from archaeological sites provides important evidence about past human diets habits: this includes species selection, food preparation, consumption dis...

Identifying the genes underlying adaptation, their distribution in genomes and the evolutionary forces shaping genomic diversity are key challenges in evolutionary biology. Very few studies have investigated the abundance and distribution of selective sweeps in species with high-quality reference genomes, outside a handful of model species. Pathogenic fungi are tractable eukaryote models for in...

UNLABELLED • PREMISE OF STUDY Recent studies suggest that invasive plants compete reproductively with native plants by reducing the quantity or quality of pollinator visits. Although these studies have revealed ecological consequences of pollinator-mediated competition between invasive and native plants, the evolutionary outcomes of these interactions remain largely unexplored.• METHODS We ...