Evolutionary Biology

The New Normal: A weekly podcast with U of T's Maydianne Andrade

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 16:43:37 +0000

The New Normal: A weekly podcast with U of T's Maydianne Andrade Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 04/22/2020 - 12:43

Topic

The global pandemic has altered much of our daily lives – school, work, shopping, how we connect with family and friends – and is shaping how we view our future.

“You would think spending the last 20 years teaching evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto might have prepared me for some of this,” says U of T Scarborough professor Maydianne Andrade. “I spend a couple of weeks every year teaching my students about the evolution of viruses. In fact, I have a slide that says this is one of our biggest threats.

“I’m also a behavioural ecologist, which means I understand, or think about, how our evolutionary history interacts with what’s around right now in the current context, to shape our behaviour.

“But none of that helped.”

In a new weekly podcast created in collaboration with a University of Toronto Communications team led by producer Lisa Lightbourn, Andrade – the Canada Research Chair in Integrative Behavioural Ecology and vice-dean of faculty affairs and equity at U of T Scarborough – explores how we’re coping with this “new normal” and what kind of future we’re building in the process.

Over the next few weeks, Andrade will introduce listeners to members of her family, her students and some of her faculty colleagues as she investigates how people have found ways to connect, even as the pandemic has kept them apart.

“We are all in this together,” Andrade says. “And what we are when we come out the other side will depend on how we work together to overcome the challenges of this new time.”

The first full episode of The New Normal will be released next week. Entitled “The Corona Shuffle” the episode will explore how simple tasks such as walking down the street or visiting the grocery store have changed.

See a complete list of episodes

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Cities as evolutionary 'change agents': U of T biologists edit special issue of scientific journal

noreen.rasbach — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Cities as evolutionary 'change agents': U of T biologists edit special issue of scientific journal

noreen.rasbach Wed, 08/22/2018 - 00:00

Cutline

A German study on burrowing owls found that separate groups native to various South American cities had developed similar genetic responses, even though there was no cross-breeding between the populations

Topic

Research & Innovation

U of T Mississauga

Subheadline

New research conducted by evolutionary biologists worldwide paints cities as evolutionary “change agents,” says a trio of biologists from the University of Toronto who selected and edited the studies.

A compilation of 15 new research papers, published as a special issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B, confirms that cities frequently alter evolution by natural selection and species are adapting to cities worldwide. As well, new commensal species – those that live alongside humans – have arisen in response to the environmental demands and challenges imposed by urbanization.

“These papers greatly advance our knowledge of urban evolutionary biology,” says Marc Johnson, an associate professor of biology at University of Toronto Mississauga and director of the Centre for Urban Environments. “These are the same evolutionary mechanisms first identified by Charles Darwin more than 150 years ago and the findings from these studies will be increasingly important as more and more of the world’s population flocks to urban environments.

“It’s pretty remarkable. For years, biologists ignored cities, seeing them as ‘anti-life’ – and only recently biologists began to realize that cities are agents of change, driving evolution of organisms living around us and even some living on us.”

Johnson co-edited the project with two PhD candidates in ecology and evolutionary biology, James Santangelo and Ruth Rivkin. Santangelo also contributed a study to the compilation, developing the first theoretical models that predict evolutionary outcomes in urban environments.

The special issue contains many other studies that also illustrate its key evolutionary findings. For example, a Belgian study of Daphnia magna, a type of zooplankton of freshwater ponds and lakes, demonstrates that cities frequently alter natural selection. Leuven researcher Kristien Brans and her colleagues collected Daphnia from ponds in both urban and rural locations and put them into holding tanks in the lab. They elevated the water temperature in the tanks and by measuring their protein metabolization and development were able to determine that the urban Daphnia were able to handle the stress of warmer temperatures more easily than their rural counterparts. Given that cities are warmer than rural areas, this ability to adapt to a warmer and often more stressful climate is essential, Johnson notes.

Parallel evolutionary changes in diverse urban locations is shown by a study of burrowing owl populations in South America, a project led by Jakob Mueller in Germany. He and his colleagues determined that separate groups of burrowing owls native to various South American cities had developed similar genetic responses, even though there was no cross-breeding between the populations. Urban environments share numerous features that likely account for these similar changes.

The issue also illustrates how urban areas influence the evolution of invasive species and pests; in many cases, humans become agents for the dispersal and movement of their genes. For instance, Tina Arredondo and her colleagues at Portland State University in Oregon studied the spread of an invasive grass species, Brachypodium sylvaticum, across urban-rural boundaries and discovered that humans were actively involved in its spread, unwittingly carrying seeds as they pursued recreational activities on local waterways.

“We are facilitating the dispersal and expansion of the plant’s range to new areas,” says Rivkin. “Humans are complicit in altering the genetic distribution of a variety of species.”

The special issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B addresses some of the most pressing gaps in our understanding of urban evolutionary ecology and points the way forward for further study.

Read the research in Proceedings of the Royal Society B

“This issue marks the beginning of a very important area of research,” Johnson says. “It will allow us to understand evolutionary biology more generally and to realize how important it is for humans and the environment in which we live. It also has important implications for understanding how organisms persist.

Santangelo notes that additional research into urban evolutionary biology can also help us become better stewards of our urban environments.

“Understanding how cities shape the evolution of urban populations can facilitate designing management strategies for urban pests and help minimize the impact of humans on the spread of invasive species,” he says.

“There’s lots to explore," Johnson adds. This is just the start of a long and interesting road of scientific discovery.”

#UofTGrad17: Three things you should know about honorary grads Rosemary and Peter Grant

Romi Levine — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 11:25:46 +0000

#UofTGrad17: Three things you should know about honorary grads Rosemary and Peter Grant

Romi Levine Wed, 06/07/2017 - 07:25

Cutline

Award winning evolutionary biologists Rosemary and Peter Grant are receiving University of Toronto honorary doctorates (photo courtesy of Rosemary and Peter Grant)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

In the 1830s, Charles Darwin set out on a cross-continental journey on the HMS Beagle that would shape his theory of evolution. His voyage led him to the Galapágos Islands off the coast of Ecuador where he spent five weeks studying its unique fauna.

More than 100 years later, evolutionary biologists Rosemary and Peter Grant traveled to the same archipelago to conduct their groundbreaking research on animal evolution. The Grants’ scientific contributions have earned them accolades all over the world.

U of T researchers discover new creatures great and small

ullahnor — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 16:48:24 +0000

U of T researchers discover new creatures great and small

ullahnor Mon, 01/23/2017 - 11:48

Cutline

The lobster-like marine predator was one of six new species discovered (illustration by Lars Field)

Christine Elias

Author legacy

Christine Elias

Topic

Breaking Research

Species

Evolutionary Biology

Faculty of Arts & Science

ecology

Fossil

Dinosaur

Subheadline

6 new species discovered in past five years

From a deep-sea creature that predates dinosaurs by 250 million years to a chameleon-like lizard in the Dominican Republic, meet six new species – some living and some extinct – that have been discovered by scientists at U of T's Faculty of Arts & Science over the last five years.

The “Wendy” dino – named for legendary Canadian fossil hunter and discoverer Wendy Sloboda – has been called “one of the most striking horned dinosaurs ever found.”

An early member of the Triceratops family, the elaborate horns and head ornamentation of Wendiceratops pinhornensis set it apart from its relatives.

The dino, found in southern Alberta in 2010, lived 79 million years ago, making it one of the oldest named members of the horned dinosaur family.

The research on Wendiceratops was completed by David Evans, an associate professor in U of T’s department of ecology and evolutionary biology and a curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum, and Michael Ryan of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

It has greatly increased the understanding of the evolution of horned dinosaurs.

This chameleon-like lizard – a Greater Antillean anole named Anolis landestoyi for Miguel Landestoy, the naturalist who first spotted and photographed it – is one of the first new anole species found in the Dominican Republic in decades.

The new species was described by Luke Mahler, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, as helping to piece together a long-standing puzzle of similar looking species that exist on different Caribbean islands.

“As soon as I saw the pictures, I thought, 'I need to buy a plane ticket,'” says Mahler, who was the lead author of the published article on the discovery.

U of T researchers find plants evolving to adapt to urbanization-driven environmental conditions

ullahnor — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 14:32:20 +0000

U of T researchers find plants evolving to adapt to urbanization-driven environmental conditions

ullahnor Fri, 01/06/2017 - 09:32

Cutline

Frost-covered clover (photo by Marc Johnson)

Blake Eligh

Author legacy

Blake Eligh

Topic

A tiny plant is providing big clues about how urbanization is driving the evolution of living organisms.

New research from U of T reveals the first evidence that the common white clover changes genetically to adapt to urban environments.

The study by U of T Mississauga researchers Ken Thompson and Marc Johnson also reveals surprising new information about the effect that city temperatures may play in the process. Marie Renaudin of AgroSup Dijon is a co-author on the paper, which appears in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

“Humans build cities and live in them, but many other organisms live in our cities too,” says Thompson, who conducted the research while working on a master’s degree in ecology and evolutionary biology at U of T. “We wanted to see whether natural populations are adapting to urbanization. We also wanted to understand the ecological features of cities that might be driving such adaptations.”

The researchers studied white clover, which is commonly found in both urban and rural environments. Established traits of the plant include cyanogenesis, a poisonous chemical defence system that protects clover from herbivores.

When crushed, chemicals in the leaves combine to create hydrogen cyanide, which deters slugs and other creatures from eating the plant. But the chemical protection comes at a cost – if the clover freezes, those same compounds harm the plant. As a result, clover has evolved to be less likely to display cyanogenic traits in cold climates and more likely to display cyanogenic traits in warm climates.

“We saw this as the ideal model system to test if organisms adapt to cities,” says Johnson, an associate professor of biology at U of T Mississauga. “We know clover adapts to temperature variation at continental scales, and we know there are similar temperature changes across cities like Toronto, New York, Montreal and Boston.”

The research team sampled thousands of plants from clover populations along 50-kilometre paths between the urban core of Toronto and rural areas outside the city, looking for evidence of evolutionary changes in cyanogenic traits.

Air temperatures in cities are often a few degrees higher than surrounding rural areas due to a sparse tree canopy and acres of asphalt and concrete that absorb and reflect the sun’s heat. Because of this “urban heat island effect,” the researchers expected to find evidence of cyanogenic traits in urban clover.

“We expected the urban plants to have more cyanide in the city because warmer temperatures would result in less freezing,” says Thompson, who is now working on his PhD at the University of British Columbia. “But we found the exact opposite – populations are evolving decreased levels of cyanide toward the urban centre.”

The same pattern was repeated in clover samples from Boston and New York City.

“Data tells us that the air temperature is warmer in the city centre,” Thompson says. “We needed temperature data from the plant’s perspective.”

The team monitored ground-level temperature sensors over the winter. The sensors revealed a surprise – despite warmer urban air temperatures during the day, it is much colder at ground level in the city centre at night than it is in the country. They called it the “urban cold island effect.”

By analyzing satellite images, the researchers concluded that snow cover played a crucial part in the process.

“Snow is a great insulator of the ground so plants buried under snow are much warmer than plants that are not,” Thompson says. “Rural populations are more insulated by snow, but we found a decrease in snow cover in urban populations, leaving plants exposed to cold temperatures. This appears to cause natural selection for plants that lack cyanogenic traits in cities.”

The sole outlier in the study was Montreal, which experiences more urban snow cover than the other cities in the study.

“We’re learning that organisms are rapidly adapting to the unique environmental conditions associated with urbanization,” Thompson says. “We know a lot about the climates of cities, but this research shows that cities are having surprising effects on living organisms. We need more data on how evolution is happening to understand the effect of urbanization on living organisms.”

U of T evolutionary biologist Stephen Wright takes Steacie Prize

geoff.vendeville — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 16:50:38 +0000

U of T evolutionary biologist Stephen Wright takes Steacie Prize

geoff.vendeville Thu, 12/15/2016 - 11:50

Cutline

Stephen Wright, a professor and Canada Research Chair in Population Genomics, was awarded the prestigious Steacie Prize (photo courtesy of the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada)

Peter Boisseau

Author legacy

Peter Boisseau

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Subheadline

“The genome itself is not this blueprint – it’s a society of genes where there is all this evolutionary activity going on in its own right”

Evolutionary biologist and world-renowned plant genomicist Stephen Wright of the University of Toronto has capped a remarkable year by winning the prestigious Steacie Prize.

The prize is awarded annually to a scientist or engineer 40 years of age or younger for notable contributions to research in Canada.

“It’s certainly a big honour for our group,” says Wright, a professor and Canada Research Chair in Population Genomics with U of T’s department of ecology & evolutionary biology.

“It’s an especially exciting thing for our department since this is the second year in a row that we have received this,” adds Wright, noting that his colleague Aneil Agrawal, a distinguished professor of evolutionary genetics, was the 2015 Steacie Prize winner. “It’s also a great coup for our field.”

Wright says the back-to-back awards speak to the growing stature of evolutionary biology and genomics in the sciences.

Just as he was finishing his undergraduate degree, the first plant genome was being mapped out. Since then, the study of evolutionary plant genomics has skyrocketed with a rapidly growing number of species now catalogued in huge data sets.

“I sort of grew up as the field was growing up,” Wright says.

“Our ability to address these questions is still exploding.”

Wright has already established himself as one of the world’s most influential scientists in this emerging field of plant population and evolutionary genomics.

Earlier this year, he won a Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship. It is helping to fund his lab’s new research on herbicide-resistant “super weeds,” a growing threat to global food security and the livelihood of millions of farmers.

Evolutionary Biology

The New Normal: A weekly podcast with U of T's Maydianne Andrade

See a complete list of episodes

Listen on Spotify

Listen on SoundCloud

Cities as evolutionary 'change agents': U of T biologists edit special issue of scientific journal

Read the research in Proceedings of the Royal Society B

#UofTGrad17: Three things you should know about honorary grads Rosemary and Peter Grant

Read more about Rosemary and Peter Grant

U of T researchers discover new creatures great and small

Read more about the anole

Read more about the lobster-like marine predator

U of T researchers find plants evolving to adapt to urbanization-driven environmental conditions

U of T evolutionary biologist Stephen Wright takes Steacie Prize

Read more about the fellowship