How are species adapting to human contexts?

“The potential magnitude of unintentional human selection should not be underestimated.”

Authors Kathryn G. Turner, Christopher J. Schell, and Brook T. Moyers report in their recent article “Genomics of Adaptation to Human Contexts” (Journal of Heredity, 2018, Vol. 109, No. 2) the summaries of a one day symposium of geneticists and their published papers. One key paragraph of their article states:

“Moyers et al. (this issue) review the evidence for a genetic “cost of domestication,” and that with few exceptions, domesticated lineages show signs of increased deleterious genetic variation compared to their wild relatives. These signs include increased genome-wide linkage disequilibrium, reduced genetic diversity, increased numbers or substitutions of nonsynonymous relative to synonymous mutations, and more numerous or frequent mutations that annotate as deleterious in comparative analyses. The same pattern is found when comparing modern domesticated lineages subject to recent intense artificial selection (elite or improved varieties) against older domesticated lineages (landrace or noncommercial varieties). These patterns are likely driven by the combination of repeated genetic bottlenecks, strong artificial selection, and increased inbreeding that humans have intentionally and unintentionally applied during the process of domestication.”