Adaptation to enemy shifts: rapid resistance evolution to local Vibrio spp. in invasive Pacific oysters

One hypothesis for the success of invasive species is reduced pathogen burden, resulting from a release from infections or high immunological fitness (low immunopathology) of invaders. Despite of strong selection exerted on the host, the evolutionary response of invaders to newly acquired pathogens has rarely been considered. The two independent and genetically distinct invasions of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas into the North Sea represent an ideal model system to study fast evolutionary responses of invasive populations. By exposing both invasion sources to ubiquitous and phylogenetically diverse pathogens (Vibrio spp.) we demonstrate that within a few generations hosts adapted to sympatric pathogen communities. However, this local adaptation only became apparent in selective environments, i.e. at elevated temperatures reflecting patterns of disease outbreaks in natural populations. Resistance against sympatric and allopatric Vibrio spp. strains was dominantly inherited in crosses between both invasion sources, resulting in an overall higher resistance of admixed individuals than pure lines. Therefore we suggest that a simple genetic resistance mechanism of the host is matched to a common virulence mechanism shared by local Vibrio strains. This combination might have facilitated a fast evolutionary response that can explain another dimension of why invasive species can be so successful in newly invaded ranges.

Long-term dynamics of adaptive evolution in a globally important coccolithophore to ocean acidification

Recent evolution experiments have revealed that marine phytoplankton may adapt to global change, for example to ocean warming or acidification. Long-term adaptation to novel environments is a dynamic process and phenotypic change can take place thousands of generations after exposure to novel conditions. Using the longest evolution experiment performed in any marine species to date (4 yrs, = 2100 generations), we show that in the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi, long-term adaptation to ocean acidification is complex and initial phenotypic responses may revert for important traits. While fitness increased continuously, calcification was restored within the first 500 generations but later reduced in response to selection, enhancing physiological declines of calcification in response to ocean acidification. Interestingly, calcification was not constitutively reduced but revealed rates similar to control treatments when transferred back to present-day CO2 conditions. Growth rate increased with time in controls and adaptation treatments, although the effect size of adaptation assessed through reciprocal assay experiments varied. Several trait changes were associated with selection for higher cell division rates under laboratory conditions, such as reduced cell size and lower particulate organic carbon content per cell. Our results show that phytoplankton may evolve phenotypic plasticity that can affect biogeochemically important traits, such as calcification, in an unforeseen way under future ocean conditions.

Experiment: Adaptation of a globally important coccolithophore to ocean warming and acidification

Although oceanwarming and acidification are recognized as two major anthropogenic perturbations of today's oceanswe know very little about how marine phytoplankton may respond via evolutionary change.We tested for adaptation to ocean warming in combination with ocean acidification in the globally important phytoplankton species Emiliania huxleyi. Temperature adaptation occurred independently of ocean acidifcation levels. Exponential growth rates were were up to 16% higher in populations adapted for one year to warming when assayed at their upper thermal tolerance limit. Particulate inorganic (PIC) and organic (POC) carbon production was restored to values under present-day ocean conditions, owing to adaptive evolution, and were 101% and 55% higher under combined warming and acidification, respectively, than in non-adapted controls. Cells also evolved to a smaller size while they recovered their initial PIC:POC ratio even under elevated CO2. The observed changes in coccolithophore growth, calcite and biomass production, cell size and elemental composition demonstrate the importance of evolutionary processes for phytoplankton performance in a future ocean. At the end of a 1-yr temperature selection phase, we conducted a reciprocal assay experiment in which temperature-adapted asexual populations were compared to the respective non-adapted control populations under high temperature, and vice versa (1. Assay Data, Dataset #835336). Mean exponential growth rates ? in treatments subjected to high temperature increased rapidly under all high temperature-CO2 treatment combinations during the temperature selection phase (2. time series, Dataset #835339).

Adaptive evolution of a key phytoplankton species to ocean acidification

Ocean acidification, the drop in seawater pH associated with the ongoing enrichment of marine waters with carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning, may seriously impair marine calcifying organisms. Our present understanding of the sensitivity of marine life to ocean acidification is based primarily on short-term experiments, in which organisms are exposed to increased concentrations of CO2. However, phytoplankton species with short generation times, in particular, may be able to respond to environmental alterations through adaptive evolution. Here, we examine the ability of the world's single most important calcifying organism, the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi, to evolve in response to ocean acidification in two 500-generation selection experiments. Specifically, we exposed E. huxleyi populations founded by single or multiple clones to increased concentrations of CO2. Around 500 asexual generations later we assessed their fitness. Compared with populations kept at ambient CO2 partial pressure, those selected at increased partial pressure exhibited higher growth rates, in both the single- and multiclone experiment, when tested under ocean acidification conditions. Calcification was partly restored: rates were lower under increased CO2 conditions in all cultures, but were up to 50% higher in adapted compared with non-adapted cultures. We suggest that contemporary evolution could help to maintain the functionality of microbial processes at the base of marine food webs in the face of global change.