S. P. Otto

Variety is the spice of life: nongenetic variation in life histories influences population growth and evolvability

The paper examines how nongenetic variation in vital rates affects population growth and evolvability by modifying age-structured population models to include individual heterogeneity.

The Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Microbiome of Pacific Oyster Spat is Shaped by Ocean Warming but not Acidification

This study examines how ocean warming and acidification affect the microbiome of Pacific oyster spat, finding that warming alters microbiome composition while acidification does not.

Density-dependent selection during range expansion affects expansion load in life-history traits

The paper examines how density-dependent selection during range expansion interacts with allele surfing to affect genetic load and life-history trait evolution.

Trait-dependent diversification in angiosperms: patterns, models and data

This study synthesizes data from 152 studies on angiosperm diversification using SSE models, finding that trait effects vary across clades and dataset properties influence results.

Rapid weed adaptation and range expansion in response to agriculture over the last two centuries

The paper studies how modern agriculture has driven the evolution and range expansion of common waterhemp over the last two centuries through genome analysis of historical and present-day samples.

Broad variation in rates of polyploidy and dysploidy across flowering plants is correlated with lineage diversification

The paper examines polyploidy and dysploidy rates across flowering plants and finds they correlate with diversification rates, with polyploidy having a stronger correlation.

Insights from Fisher's geometric model on the likelihood of speciation under different histories of environmental change

This study uses Fisher's geometric model to show that rapid environmental change increases speciation rates through genetic incompatibilities, supporting both ecological and mutation-order speciation mechanisms.

Feedback Between Coevolution and Epidemiology Can Help or Hinder the Maintenance of Genetic Variation in Host-Parasite Models

The paper examines how ecological and epidemiological feedbacks influence genetic variation maintenance in host-parasite coevolution models, finding coevolution rarely outperforms neutral drift.

Coevolution does not slow the rate of loss of heterozygosity in a stochastic host-parasite model with constant population size

The paper models host-parasite coevolution in a finite population and finds that matching-alleles coevolution reduces genetic variation rather than maintaining it.

Genetic paths to evolutionary rescue and the distribution of fitness effects along them

This study uses Fisher's geometric model to show how the genetic path to evolutionary rescue shifts from single to multiple mutations as mutation rates and environmental stress increase.

Evolution of plasticity in production and transgenerational inheritance of small RNAs under dynamic environmental conditions

This study develops a model to analyze how small RNA production and transgenerational inheritance evolve under fluctuating environments, finding that plastic amplification rates are favored over inheritance mechanisms in most scenarios.

Haploid selection, sex ratio bias, and transitions between sex-determining systems

This study uses population genetic models to show that haploid selection and sex ratio biases can drive transitions between sex-determining systems, challenging previous theories that focused on sex ratio equalization.

The genome-wide rate and spectrum of spontaneous mutations differs between haploid and diploid yeast

This study compares mutation rates and spectra between haploid and diploid yeast, finding haploids have more single-nucleotide and mitochondrial mutations, while diploids have more structural changes and detrimental mutations.