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A community genetics perspective: opportunities for the coming decade
Author(s) -
Crutsinger Gregory M.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/nph.13537
Subject(s) - ecological genetics , perspective (graphical) , biology , human evolutionary genetics , ecology , evolutionary biology , community , intraspecific competition , sociology , ecosystem , genetics , genome , gene , computer science , demography , population , artificial intelligence
Summary Community genetics was originally proposed as a novel approach to identifying links between genes and ecosystems, and merging ecological and evolutional perspectives. The dozen years since the birth of community genetics have seen many empirical studies and common garden experiments, as well as the rise of eco‐evolutionary dynamics research and a general shift in ecology to incorporate intraspecific variation. So what have we learned from community genetics? Can individual genes affect entire ecosystems? Are there interesting questions left to be answered, or has community genetics run its course? This perspective makes a series of key points about the general patterns that have emerged and calls attention to gaps in our understanding to be addressed in the coming years.ContentsSummary 65 I. Introduction 65 II. Plant genotype effects are common, especially on herbivores 66 III. From prey to predators, genetic effects cascade up the food chain 66 IV. Genetic effects rain down from the canopy to soil 66 V. The dampening of the extended phenotype 66 VI. From genetic to species, diversity begets diversity 67 VII. It's the traits that matter … but which ones? 68 VIII. There are many, many genes for ecosystems 68 IX. From the community‐genetic caterpillar to the eco‐evolutionary butterfly 68X. Conclusions and future directions 68Acknowledgements 69References 69