David M. Althoff

Syracuse University

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Kari A. Segraves

U.S. National Science Foundation

Olle Pellmyr

University of Idaho

John N. Thompson

University of California, Santa Cruz

Clive T. Darwell

National Science and Technology Development Agency

Jim Leebens‐Mack

University of Georgia

M. A. Balcázar-Lara

Universidad de Colima

Sheng Pei Wang

Syracuse University

Glenn P. Svensson

Lund University

David M. Rivers

Syracuse University

Anne E. Curé

Syracuse University

Cooperative Institutions

Syracuse University

University of Idaho

Washington State University

Cornell University

Universität Hamburg

University of Arizona

University of Georgia

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

State University of New York

Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y Ensenanza Catie

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Employing Philosophical Dialogue in Collaborative Science

BioScience (2007)

Sanford D. Eigenbrode Michael O’Rourke J. D. Wulfhorst David M. Althoff Caren S. Goldberg

Integrated research across disciplines is required to address many of the pressing environmental problems facing human societies. Often the integration involves disparate disciplines, including those in the biological sciences, and demands collaboration from problem formulation through hypothesis development, data analysis, interpretation, and application. Such projects raise conceptual and methodological challenges that are new to many researchers in the biological sciences and to their collaborators in other disciplines. In this article, we develop the theme that many of these challenges are fundamentally philosophical, a dimension that has been largely overlooked in the extensive literature on cross-disciplinary research and education. We present a “toolbox for philosophical dialogue,” consisting of a set of questions for self-examination that cross-disciplinary collaborators can use to identify and address their philosophical disparities and commonalities. We provide a brief user's manual for this toolbox and evidence for its effectiveness in promoting successful integration across disciplines.

Toolbox

Discipline

Cross disciplinary

Theme (computing)

10.1641/b570109

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Citations (362)

Phenotypic plasticity facilitates initial colonization of a novel environment

Evolution (2019)

Sheng Pei Wang David M. Althoff

Phenotypic plasticity can allow organisms to respond to environmental changes by producing better matching phenotypes without any genetic change. Because of this, plasticity is predicted to be a major mechanism by which a population can survive the initial stage of colonizing a novel environment. We tested this prediction by challenging wild Drosophila melanogaster with increasingly extreme larval environments and then examining expression of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and its relationship to larval survival in the first generation of encountering a novel environment. We found that most families responded in the adaptive direction of increased ADH activity in higher alcohol environments and families with higher plasticity were also more likely to survive in the highest alcohol environment. Thus, plasticity of ADH activity was positively selected in the most extreme environment and was a key trait influencing fitness. Furthermore, there was significant heritability of ADH plasticity that can allow plasticity to evolve in subsequent generations after initial colonization. The adaptive value of plasticity, however, was only evident in the most extreme environment and had little impact on fitness in less extreme environments. The results provide one of the first direct tests of the adaptive role of phenotypic plasticity in colonizing a novel environment.

Developmental plasticity

10.1111/evo.13676

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Citations (38)

The effects of tail autotomy on survivorship and body growth of Uta stansburiana under conditions of high mortality

Oecologia (1994)

David M. Althoff John N. Thompson

Autotomy

10.1007/bf00316952

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Citations (37)

Ecological Communities

Cambridge University Press eBooks (2007)

Takayuki Ohgushi Takayuki Ohgushi Takayuki Ohgushi Takayuki Ohgushi Takayuki Ohgushi

To gain a more complete understanding of plant-based ecological community structure requires knowledge of the integration of direct and indirect effects in plant herbivore systems. Trait modification of plants as a result of herbivory is very common and widespread in terrestrial plants, and this initiates indirect interactions between organisms that utilise the same host plant. This 2007 book argues that food webs by themselves are inadequate models for understanding ecological communities, because they ignore important indirect, nontrophic links. This subject is of great importance in understanding not only community organisation but also in identifying the underlying mechanisms of maintenance of biodiversity in nature. This book will be an invaluable resource for researchers and graduate students interested in community and population ecology, evolutionary biology, biodiversity, botany and entomology.

Community

Trait

10.1017/cbo9780511542701

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Citations (58)

Replicated host-race formation in bogus yucca moths: genetic and ecological divergence of Prodoxus quinquepunctellus on yucca hosts

Evolutionary ecology research (2005)

Glenn P. Svensson David M. Althoff Olle Pellmyr

Goal: Assess host-race formation in certain moths by examining their genetic and ecological differentiation. Organisms: Stalk-feeding moths, Prodoxus quinquepunctellus, collected from sympatric populations of Yucca elata and Y. rostrata in west Texas, USA. Results: Moths on the two yuccas differed significantly in mtDNA haplotype frequencies, emergence time, wing dot number, body size, and ovipositor size and shape. Conclusion: Host-race formation has probably occurred in this yucca moth although genetic divergence was low.

Yucca

Ovipositor

Genetic divergence

Divergence (linguistics)

Source

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Citations (19)

The influence of interaction type and feeding location on the phylogeographic structure of the yucca moth community associated with Hesperoyucca whipplei

Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (2006)

David M. Althoff Glenn P. Svensson Olle Pellmyr

Nymphalidae

Yucca

10.1016/j.ympev.2006.10.015

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Citations (10)

Phylogenetic analysis of RAD‐seq data: examining the influence of gene genealogy conflict on analysis of concatenated data

Cladistics (2016)

David M. Rivers Clive T. Darwell David M. Althoff

One of the major issues in phylogenetic analysis is that gene genealogies from different gene regions may not reflect the true species tree or history of speciation. This has led to considerable debate about whether concatenation of loci is the best approach for phylogenetic analysis. The application of Next-generation sequencing techniques such as RAD-seq generates thousands of relatively short sequence reads from across the genomes of the sampled taxa. These data sets are typically concatenated for phylogenetic analysis leading to data sets that contain millions of base pairs per taxon. The influence of gene region conflict among so many loci in determining the phylogenetic relationships among taxa is unclear. We simulated RAD-seq data by sampling 100 and 500 base pairs from alignments of over 6000 coding regions that each produce one of three highly supported alternative phylogenies of seven species of Drosophila. We conducted phylogenetic analyses on different sets of these regions to vary the sampling of loci with alternative gene trees to examine the effect on detecting the species tree. Irrespective of sequence length sampled per region and which subset of regions was used, phylogenetic analyses of the concatenated data always recovered the species tree. The results suggest that concatenated alignments of Next-generation data that consist of many short sequences are robust to gene tree/species tree conflict when the goal is to determine the phylogenetic relationships among taxa.

10.1111/cla.12149

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Citations (24)

Characterizing the interaction between the bogus yucca moth and yuccas: do bogus yucca moths impact yucca reproductive success?

Oecologia (2004)

David M. Althoff Kari A. Segraves Jed P. Sparks

Yucca

Mutualism

Scape

10.1007/s00442-004-1584-5

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Citations (19)

The role of ecological availability and host plant characteristics in determining host use by the bogus yucca moth Prodoxus decipiens

Ecological Entomology (2014)

David M. Althoff Kelly A. Fox TAL FRIEDEN

1. Specialisation in host plant use is strongly correlated with speciation in many plant‐feeding insects. Specialised taxa, however, could be restricted in host range due to limits in ecological availability of host plant species rather than trade‐offs in using alternate host species. 2. Moths in the genus Prodoxus are extreme specialists on Yucca and speciation is closely tied to host plant shifts. However, many Yucca ranges are allopatric. This study examined whether the bogus yucca moth Prodoxus decipiens is limited in host range because of biogeographic factors or due to differences in the characteristics of host plant species. 3. In a common garden, local P. decipiens moths that use Yucca filamentosa were exposed to individuals of five Yucca species, two that are known hosts of P. decipiens in other parts of its range and three that are used by its sister species, Prodoxus quinquepunctellus . 4. Local moths were attracted to flowers of all Yucca species and females attempted oviposition in the flowering stalks of all species. However, larvae successfully completed development to diapause in only one of the five host plant species. Larval development on non‐natal Yucca species was significantly reduced compared with the local host. 5. The results suggest that differences in host plant characteristics among Yucca species would result in strong natural selection during a host shift. Thus, specialisation in host plant use is probably due to trade‐offs involved with using novel host plant species as well as ecological availability.

Yucca

10.1111/een.12141

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Citations (9)

EXAMINING GENETIC STRUCTURE IN A BOGUS YUCCA MOTH: A SEQUENTIAL APPROACH TO PHYLOGEOGRAPHY

Evolution (2002)

David M. Althoff Olle Pellmyr

Understanding the phylogeography of a species requires not only elucidating patterns of genetic structure among populations, but also identifying the possible evolutionary events creating that structure. The use of a single phylogeographic test or analysis, however, usually provides a picture of genetic structure without revealing the possible underlying evolutionary causes. We used current analytical techniques in a sequential approach to examine genetic structure and its underlying causes in the bogus yucca moth Prodoxus decipiens (Lepidoptera: Prodoxidae). Both historical biogeography and recent human transplantations of the moth's host plants provided a priori expectations of the pattern of genetic structure and its underlying causes. We evaluated these expectations by using a progression of phylogenetic, demographic, and population genetic analyses of mtDNA sequence data from 476 individuals distributed across 25 populations that encompassed the range of P. decipiens. The combination of these analyses revealed that much of the genetic structure has evolved more recently than suggested by historical biogeography, has been influenced by changes in demography, and can be best explained by long distance dispersal and isolation by distance. We suggest that performing a suite of analyses that focus on different temporal scales may be an effective approach to investigating the patterns and causes of genetic structure within species.

Isolation by distance

Population Genetics

10.1554/0014-3820(2002)056[1632:egsiab]2.0.co;2

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Citations (9)