The November online issue of Evolutionary Applications has been published. The cover image  features the restored intermountain grassland at the base of the Bear River Range of the Wasatch Mountains, Utah, USA. The editor in Editor-in-Chief Louis Bernatchez has highlighted the following articles, which use evolutionary biology to address questions of practical importance, as of particular interest:

Investigating the genetics of Bti resistance using mRNA tag sequencing: application on laboratory strains and natural populations of the dengue vector Aedes aegypti by Margot Paris, Sebastien Marcombe, Eric Coissac, Vincent Corbel, Jean-Philippe David and Laurence Després
Summary: This study investigates the genetics of Bti resistance in Aedes aegypti  using SNP polymorphism within cDNA tag sequences.  The authors showed SNPs  identified in  laboratory strains are transferable to natural populations, and that the same genomic regions are, to varying degrees, differentiated between laboratory strains. The findings suggest that most of the genes associated with resistance differ between laboratory and natural environments but common selected regions might also harbour key genes for Bti resistance.

Back to the future: evolving bacteriophages to increase their effectiveness against the pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 by Alex Betts, Marie Vasse, Oliver Kaltz and Michael E. Hochberg
Summary: The authors used Pseudomonas aeruginosa to evolve four different phage isolates though 6 serial transfers to produce a “superphage”, and showed that bacteria evolve a degree of resistance and cross-resistance to a foreign phage. The use of evolutionary engineering to develop “superphages” could be effective way to combat bacterial infections in hospitals, whilst reducing the risk of bacterial resistance compared to conventional methods.

Assessing strategies to minimize unintended fitness consequences of aquaculture on wild populations by Marissa L. Baskett, Scott C. Burgess and Robin S. Waples
Summary: In this study, a model of coupled genetic and demographic dynamics has been used to evaluate alternative management approaches to minimizing unintended fitness consequences of aquaculture escapees. Results  highlight the importance of the timing of aquaculture escape, and that reducing aquaculture escapees through low-level leakage is more effective than reducing an analogous number of escapees from large, rare pulses.

As always, we are keen to encourage papers applying concepts from evolutionary biology to address biological questions of health, social and economic relevance across a vast array of applied disciplines, and also strongly encourage submissions of papers making use of modern genomics or other molecular methods to address important questions in an applied evolutionary framework. For more information please visit the aims and scopes page.

Submit your article to Evolutionary Applications here >

Sign up to receive email content alerts here >