An adaptive role of corolla shape has been often asserted without an empirical demonstration of how natural selection acts on this trait. In generalist plants, in which flowers are visited by diverse pollinator fauna that commonly vary spatially, detecting pollinator-mediated selection on corolla shape is even more difficult. In this study, we explore the mechanisms promoting selection on corol...

We have used gluconate-limited chemostats to study selective differences between isogenic strains of Escherichia coli K12 into which four naturally occurring alleles coding for allozymes of 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6PGD) had been transferred. The limit of detectability of selection with our procedures is a selection coefficient of 0.5%. In the normal E. coli K12 genetic background, all...

We study the distribution of long Gamma Ray Bursts in the Epeak − Eiso and in the E peak– Fluence planes through an updated sample of 76 bursts, with measured redshift and spectral parameters, detected up to September 2007. We confirm the existence of a strong rest frame correlation Epeak ∝ E 0.54±0.01 iso . Contrary to previous studies, no sign of evolution with redshift of the Epeak − Eiso co...

Synonymous codons are not used at equal frequency throughout the genome, a phenomenon termed codon usage bias (CUB). It is often assumed that interspecific variation in the intensity of CUB is related to species differences in effective population sizes (N e), with selection on CUB operating less efficiently in species with small N e. Here, we specifically ask whether variation in N e predicts ...

The Arctic and the Antarctic Peninsula are currently experiencing some of the most rapid rates of ocean warming on the planet. This raises the question of how the initial adaptation to extreme cold temperatures was put in place and whether or not directional selection has led to the loss of genetic variation at key adaptive systems, and thus polar species' (re)adaptability to higher temperature...