Collaborative Research: RAPID: Genomic and phenotypic responses to hurricane-mediated selection in an invasive lizard: does epistasis constrain evolution?

This project will study evolutionary responses to extreme weather events and increase our understanding of how genetics influences a population’s response to selection. We know that extreme weather events such as hurricanes can have long-lasting, evolutionary effects on wild populations. However, no information exists about how genomic factors that might facilitate or impede that evolution.The project will focus on brown anoles (Anolis sagrei), a widespread invasive lizard in Florida that is native to Cuba. It will compare populations sampled in 2018 to those same populations following Hurricane Ian. Information on evolutionary responses (or lack thereof) to increasingly intense and frequent catastrophic weather will be a key component of our understanding of the response of wild populations to global change. The project will also train graduate and undergraduate students in field methods, as well as morphological and genomic and data analyses. Prior work consisted of high-quality genomic, habitat use, and morphological data from brown anoles. Sampling covered 30 populations distributed along the latitudinal extent of Florida and into southern Georgia. Guided by previous research, it is hypothesized that the strength of selection will be correlated with wind speeds, such that stronger winds will favor longer limbs. In addition, the evolutionary response to limb-length selection will be strongly affected by an interaction between a large-effect limb-length locus and the genomic background of brown anole populations. Specifically, there will be a weaker evolutionary response to hurricane-mediated selection on limb length in populations with extensive hybrid ancestry. Previous research found epistatic interactions between an otherwise large-effect locus for limb length and the genomic background for hybrid populations. Because these genomic backgrounds vary across Florida, these effects should vary geographically. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.