Page 14 - Renaud_Michaux_2007
P. 14

S. Renaud and J. R. Michaux

              (Lenormand, 2002). However, genetic mixing over Europe is
                                                                REFERENCES
              probably not important enough to prevent any adaptive
              latitudinal differences in gene frequencies (Davis & Shaw,  Adler, G.H. & Levins, R. (1994) The island syndrome in
              2001) and mitochondrial DNA markers fail to reveal any  rodent populations. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 69,
              significant geographical structure within the western European  473–490.
              clade (Michaux et al., 2003). Gene flow might nevertheless  Alca `ntara, M. (1991) Geographical variation in body size of the
              buffer small-scale environmental variations and favour a clinal  Wood Mouse Apodemus sylvaticus L. Mammal Review, 21,
              pattern on the mainland.                            143–150.
               Second, the breakdown of gene flow on islands should leave  Angelstam, P., Hansson, L. & Phersson, S. (1987) Distribution
              the populations free to track local environmental conditions.  borders of field mice Apodemus: the importance of seed
              Alternatively, the importance of contingent effects is enhanced  abundance and landscape composition. Oikos, 50, 123–130.
              on islands, due to the founder effect and subsequent drift in  Angerbjo ¨rn, A. (1986) Gigantism in island populations of
              populations of reduced effective size. Founder effects should be  wood mice (Apodemus) in Europe. Oikos, 47, 47–56.
              more important on remote islands that are difficult to  Atchley, W.R., Cowley, D.E., Vogl, C. & McLellan, T. (1992)
              colonize, whereas drift should be favoured on small islands.  Evolutionary divergence, shape change, and genetic corre-
              Despite these random effects, most of the post-colonization  lation structure in the rodent mandible. Systematic Biology,
              changes on islands are attributed to adaptation (Berry, 1996;  41, 196–221.
                                                                                 ¨
              Losos et al., 1998; Pergams & Ashley, 2001). Our results  Bergmann, C. (1847) Uber die Verha ¨ltnisse der Wa ¨rmeo ¨k-
              support both the importance of contingency and adaptation in  onomie der Thiere zu ihrer Gro ¨sse. Go ¨ttinger Studien, 3,
              the patterns of morphological differentiation. The latter  595–708.
              corresponds to common trends shared by independent insular  Berry, R.J. (1973) Chance and change in British long-tailed
              populations whereas the former will be expressed as shape  field mice (Apodemus sylvaticus). Journal of Zoology, London,
              features unique to one island. Such patterns are exhibited in  170, 351–366.
              multivariate space on axes subsequent to the first ones,  Berry, R.J. (1996) Small mammal differentiation on islands.
              displaying the major trends of latitude and/or adaptive insular  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London B,
              effect (see also Renaud & Millien, 2001; Renaud & Michaux,  351, 753–764.
              2003). They are thus not mutually exclusive of adaptive trends  Brehm, A., Khadem, M., Jesus, J., Andrade, P. & Vicente, L.
              and their importance in the pattern of the morphological  (2001) Lack of congruence between morphometric evolu-
              differentiation will depend on the relative impact of the other  tion and genetic differentiation suggests a recent dispersal
              factors.                                            and local habitat adaptation of the Madeiran lizard Lacerta
               Lastly, the breakdown of gene flow on islands allows  dugesii. Genetics Selection Evolution, 33, 671–685.
              adaptive changes to occur very rapidly compared to the  Bresin, A., Kiliardis, S. & Strid, K.-G. (1999) Effect of masti-
              accumulation of genetic divergence (Vitt et al., 1997; Brehm  catory function on the internal bone structure in the
              et al., 2001). The importance of adaptation is supported in this  mandible of the growing rat. European Journal of Oral Sci-
              study by common trends emerging from the different insular  ences, 107, 35–44.
              populations that share similar molar morphological features.  Bu ¨nger, L. & Hill, W. (1999) Role of growth hormone in the
              Nevertheless, the complexity of the factors involved constitutes  genetic change of mice divergently selected for body weight
              a limit to any predictive scenario. The pattern of morpholo-  and fatness. Genetical Research, Cambridge, 74, 351–360.
              gical divergence will rely on the character and the specific  Cheverud, J.M., Routman, E.J. & Irschick, D.J. (1997) Pleio-
              environment (e.g. the island), with additional influence from  tropic effects of individual gene loci on mandibular mor-
              competition, predation, degree of isolation, population size  phology. Evolution, 51, 2006–2016.
              and vegetation. We suggest that a combined morphological,  Cucchi, T. (2005) Le commensalisme de la souris et les pre-
              developmental and genetic approach can shed light on the  mie `res socie ´te ´sne ´oliyhiques me ´diterrane ´ennes. The `se,
              constraints on responses of organisms to natural selection.  Muse ´um National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris.
                                                                Damuth, J. (1993) Cope’s rule, the island rule and the scaling
                                                                  of mammalian population density. Nature, 365, 748–750.
              ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
                                                                Davis, M.B. & Shaw, R.G. (2001) Range shift and adaptive
              We thank Thomas Cucchi for numerous fruitful discussions  responses to Quaternary climate change. Science, 292, 673–
              and comments. The reviews of N. Navarro and J.-D. Vigne  679.
              were very constructive and greatly contributed to the improve-  Dayan, T. & Simberloff, D. (1998) Size patterns among com-
              ment of this manuscript. The final version of the manuscript  petitors: ecological character displacement and character
              benefited from the comments of Julie Prytulak, especially  release in mammals, with special reference to island popu-
              regarding the proper use of the English language. This research  lations. Mammal Review, 28, 99–124.
              was supported by IFB, GDR 2474 CNRS ‘Morphome ´trie et  Duarte, L.C., Monteiro, L.R., Von Zuben, F.J. & Dos Reis, S.F.
              Evolution des Formes’, Re ´gion-Rho ˆne-Alpes, and Belgian  (2000) Variation in mandible shape in Thrichomys aper-
              FNRS.                                               eoides (Mammalia: Rodentia): geometric analysis of a

              352                                                                  Journal of Biogeography 34, 339–355
                                                          ª 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation ª 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17