Dietary shift of predator in insular environment : evaluation of relative importance of natural selection and gene flow to phenotypic evolution

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21570024
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Ecology/Environment
Research Institution	Toho University
Principal Investigator	HASEGAWA Masami 東邦大学, 理学部, 教授 (40250162)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2011
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2011)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,120,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥720,000) Fiscal Year 2011: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000) Fiscal Year 2010: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000) Fiscal Year 2009: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
Keywords	島嶼 / 捕食者 / 爬虫類 / 食性 / 自然選択 / 系統地理
Research Abstract	Identifying and dating historical biological events is an essential step to disentangle causative mechanisms of adaptive evolution during the course of community assembly. We present historical evidence for the roles of predator colonization order in shaping diet shift and morphological change of the predator snake, Elaphe quadrivirgata in order to determine if predator evolved life history traits and color pattern in association with colonization order of prey. Additionally, relative importance of natural selection, random genetic drift, and gene flow on geographic divergence in head morphological traits were evaluated. Field data suggests relatively strong natural selection was observed during the course of population fluctuation.