Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/C003101/1
Adaptation to anthropogenic environmental change: the molecular genetic basis of industrial melanism in peppered moths
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Professor IJ Saccheri, University of Liverpool, Sch of Biological Sciences
- Grant held at:
- University of Liverpool, Sch of Biological Sciences
- Science Area:
- Earth
- Atmospheric
- Overall Classification:
- Earth
- ENRIs:
- Pollution and Waste
- Natural Resource Management
- Global Change
- Biodiversity
- Science Topics:
- Environmental Genomics
- Population Genetics/Evolution
- Population Ecology
- Abstract:
- Industrial melanism in the peppered moth, Biston betularia, has long been used as a defining, textbook example of a rapid evolutionary response to environmental change, which has served to educate generations of students and the general public about the reality of natural selection and adaptation. Sadly, this classic case study has been neglected by modern advances in genetics. This research project aims to further mine this long-term study to understand what happens to genomes when they undergo rapid evolution, and also to find out whether the melanism mutation in peppered moths arose once or many times. Prior to the mid 19th century only the pale coloured, speckled form of the peppered moth was known, but in 1848 a black form of the moth was first recorded in a Manchester suburb. This black form, known as carbonaria, rapidly became very common, largely replacing the typical form by the late 19th century in industrial parts of Britain; while in rural, pollution free, areas typica remained common. The widely accepted explanation for this pattern is that because peppered moths rest motionless on trees during the day and tree surfaces in polluted areas go dark due to soot deposition and loss of lichen cover, in clean air areas typica is better camouflaged against visual bird predation, but in areas with high levels of atmospheric pollution (mainly soot and sulphur dioxide) carbonaria is relatively harder to find than typica and therefore suffers less mortality. The post 1960s decline of carbonaria, coinciding with the implementation of anti-pollution legislation, lends further support to the crypsis explanation, as does the parallel rise and fall of a black form of the peppered moth in north America and continental Europe. The phenomenon of industrial melanism is not restricted to peppered moths: 70 other UK moth species, as well as other insect groups such as ladybirds, are known to have become darker during the industrial period. In this project we are specifically interested in the molecular genetic identity and origins of the melanic morphs of Biston species, without which the evolutionary response to smoke pollution could not have occurred. Do they represent ancestral polymorphisms maintained at low frequencies prior to industrialization, or did they arise through mutation during the 19th century? Biston research has a long history which has been primarily concerned with selective differences among the colour morphs and changes in morph frequencies over space and time. Our ambition is to integrate this traditional approach with the modern tools of molecular genetics to resolve a series of outstanding questions. These include the evolutionary origins and homology of melanic morphs; molecular evidence of strong selection and its impact on the genome; the relative importance of selection and gene flow to evolutionary dynamics; and the determinants of fitness differences among colour morphs. This research programme is also relevant to the conservation of biodiversity by serving as a case study for the consequences of anthropogenic environmental change on the genetic composition of populations. In particular, our work will add to the body of data on the genetic and developmental characteristics of traits, such as melanism, which allow organisms to rapidly adapt to environmental change. Last, but not least, the results of this research will add a revitalising new dimension to the paradigmatic account of 'evolution in action', which has recently come under unjustified attack.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/C003101/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Standard Grants Pre FEC
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Standard Grant
This grant award has a total value of £283,511
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Staff | Total - T&S | Total - Other Costs | Total - Equipment | Total - Indirect Costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £117,390 | £15,461 | £76,097 | £20,563 | £54,000 |
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