New Paper: Resistance Evolution & Resource Stress

Great news in that an experiment from my previous lab has been published! In a former life, I spent a lot of time looking after Plodia moths (see above!) for evolutionary work examining how they adapt to resist a deadly virus. Part of that work was moving the experiments from the old-lab in the U.K to our (then) new-lab in the U.S.A. without them all dying; as a result, I became very attached.

Anyway! Pleased to say that one of those studies has appeared, led by the phenomenal Dr. Kat Roberts and Dr. Sean Meaden. You can take a read here (open access!), It appeared for Early View in Molecular Ecology in September 2020.

In short, how these moths evolve resistance differs based on whether they are in a nutritionally abundant or deprived environment. We infer that the nutritional context alters the trade-offs governing resistance, tipping the balance in favour of previously less efficient resistance mechanisms. These mechanisms are diffuse across their selection patterns in the genome and, like many resistance phenotypes in insects,. aren’t necessary annotated as immune system genes.

This extends previous work showing that resistance evolves less readily with the additional pressure of nutritional stress - but this longer experiment shows that ‘life’ finds a way’ - resistance still evolves, but the governing trade-offs are context dependent in how selection acts mechanistically.