Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: Climate change is gradual, but it can also cause brief extreme heat waves that can exceed the upper thermal limit of any one organism. To study the evolutionary potential of upper thermal tolerance, we evolved the cold-adapted Antarctic bacteriumPseudoalteromonas haloplanktisto survive at 30°C, beyond its ancestral thermal limit. This high-temperature adaptation occurred rapidly and in multiple populations. It involved genomic changes that occurred in a highly parallel fashion and mitigated the effects of protein misfolding. However, it also confronted a physiological limit, because populations failed to grow beyond 30°C. Our experiments aimed to facilitate evolutionary rescue by using a small organism with large populations living at temperatures several degrees below their upper thermal limit. Larger organisms with smaller populations and living at temperatures closer to their upper thermal tolerances are even more likely to go extinct during extreme heat waves.
Source: Science Advances
Language: English
Subfield: Genetics
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $4,680
Awards: G1835917608, G3215241047, Adaptation to changing environments and its boundaries, Human Genetics and Disease Biology: Core Renewal for the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Robustness and weakened selection in the adaptive evolution of fluorescent proteins, The evolution of innovations in cold-adapted bacteria
OpenAlex ID: W4285491793