Why Do Some Lineages Radiate While Others Do Not? Perspectives for Future Research on Adaptive Radiations
(2025) In Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology 17(2).- Abstract
Understanding the processes that drive phenotypic diversification and underpin speciation is key to elucidating how biodiversity has evolved. Although these processes have been studied across a wide array of clades, adaptive radiations (ARs), which are systems with multiple closely related species and broad phenotypic diversity, have been particularly fruitful for teasing apart the factors that drive and constrain diversification. As such, ARs have become popular candidate study systems for determining the extent to which ecological features, including aspects of organisms and the environment, and inter- and intraspecific interactions, led to evolutionary diversification. Despite substantial past empirical and theoretical work,... (More)
Understanding the processes that drive phenotypic diversification and underpin speciation is key to elucidating how biodiversity has evolved. Although these processes have been studied across a wide array of clades, adaptive radiations (ARs), which are systems with multiple closely related species and broad phenotypic diversity, have been particularly fruitful for teasing apart the factors that drive and constrain diversification. As such, ARs have become popular candidate study systems for determining the extent to which ecological features, including aspects of organisms and the environment, and inter- and intraspecific interactions, led to evolutionary diversification. Despite substantial past empirical and theoretical work, understanding mechanistically how ARs evolve remains a major challenge. Here, we highlight a number of understudied components of the environment and of lineages themselves, which may help further our understanding of speciation and AR. We also outline some substantial remaining challenges to achieving a detailed understanding of adaptation, speciation, and the role of ecology in these processes. These major challenges include identifying factors that have a causative impact in promoting or constraining ARs, gaining a more holistic understanding of features of organisms and their environment that interact resulting in adaptation and speciation, and understanding whether the role of these organismal and environmental features varies throughout the radiation process. We conclude by providing perspectives on how future investigations into the AR process can overcome these challenges, allowing us to glean mechanistic insights into adaptation and speciation.
(Less)
- author
- De-Kayne, Rishi
; Schley, Rowan
; Barth, Julia M.I.
; Campillo, Luke C.
; Chaparro-Pedraza, Catalina
; Joshi, Jahnavi
; Salzburger, Walter
; Van Bocxlaer, Bert
; Cotoras, Darko D.
; Fruciano, Carmelo
; Geneva, Anthony J.
; Gillespie, Rosemary
; Heras, Joseph
; Koblmüller, Stephan
; Matthews, Blake
; Onstein, Renske E.
; Seehausen, Ole
; Singh, Pooja
; Svensson, Erik I.
LU
; Salazar-Valenzuela, David
; Vanhove, Maarten P.M.
; Wogan, Guinevere O.U.
; Yamaguchi, Ryo
; Yoder, Anne D.
and Cerca, José
(Less) - organization
- publishing date
- 2025-02
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology
- volume
- 17
- issue
- 2
- article number
- a041448
- publisher
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press (CSHL)
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:38692838
- scopus:85218221278
- ISSN
- 1943-0264
- DOI
- 10.1101/cshperspect.a041448
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 320c2254-9e3d-42c4-b21e-8e220dec476b
- date added to LUP
- 2025-06-25 10:01:50
- date last changed
- 2025-07-09 12:13:37
@article{320c2254-9e3d-42c4-b21e-8e220dec476b,
abstract = {{<p>Understanding the processes that drive phenotypic diversification and underpin speciation is key to elucidating how biodiversity has evolved. Although these processes have been studied across a wide array of clades, adaptive radiations (ARs), which are systems with multiple closely related species and broad phenotypic diversity, have been particularly fruitful for teasing apart the factors that drive and constrain diversification. As such, ARs have become popular candidate study systems for determining the extent to which ecological features, including aspects of organisms and the environment, and inter- and intraspecific interactions, led to evolutionary diversification. Despite substantial past empirical and theoretical work, understanding mechanistically how ARs evolve remains a major challenge. Here, we highlight a number of understudied components of the environment and of lineages themselves, which may help further our understanding of speciation and AR. We also outline some substantial remaining challenges to achieving a detailed understanding of adaptation, speciation, and the role of ecology in these processes. These major challenges include identifying factors that have a causative impact in promoting or constraining ARs, gaining a more holistic understanding of features of organisms and their environment that interact resulting in adaptation and speciation, and understanding whether the role of these organismal and environmental features varies throughout the radiation process. We conclude by providing perspectives on how future investigations into the AR process can overcome these challenges, allowing us to glean mechanistic insights into adaptation and speciation.</p>}},
author = {{De-Kayne, Rishi and Schley, Rowan and Barth, Julia M.I. and Campillo, Luke C. and Chaparro-Pedraza, Catalina and Joshi, Jahnavi and Salzburger, Walter and Van Bocxlaer, Bert and Cotoras, Darko D. and Fruciano, Carmelo and Geneva, Anthony J. and Gillespie, Rosemary and Heras, Joseph and Koblmüller, Stephan and Matthews, Blake and Onstein, Renske E. and Seehausen, Ole and Singh, Pooja and Svensson, Erik I. and Salazar-Valenzuela, David and Vanhove, Maarten P.M. and Wogan, Guinevere O.U. and Yamaguchi, Ryo and Yoder, Anne D. and Cerca, José}},
issn = {{1943-0264}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
publisher = {{Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press (CSHL)}},
series = {{Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology}},
title = {{Why Do Some Lineages Radiate While Others Do Not? Perspectives for Future Research on Adaptive Radiations}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a041448}},
doi = {{10.1101/cshperspect.a041448}},
volume = {{17}},
year = {{2025}},
}