ReviewProceedings. Biological sciences2012
Understanding specialism when the Jack of all trades can be the master of all.
Review in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed.
- Evolution of virulence of a plant RNA virus in developmental stage-structured host populations.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Competition constrains parasite adaptation to thermal heterogeneity.Evolution letters · 2026Article
- A single amino acid mutation in norovirus NS4 promotes viral spread.Journal of virology · 2026Article
- Sex decreases the pleiotropic costs of local adaptation by purging hitchhiking load.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- Virulence evolution of a salmonid virus following a host jump.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- Taylor's Power Law rules the dynamics of allele frequencies during viral evolution in response to host changes.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2025Article
- Complex interactions in the life cycle of a simple parasite shape the evolution of virulence.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- Quantifying the strength of viral fitness trade-offs between hosts: a meta-analysis of pleiotropic fitness effects.Evolution letters · 2024Article
- Spatial clustering of hosts can favor specialist parasites.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Spillover: Mechanisms, Genetic Barriers, and the Role of Reservoirs in Emerging Pathogens.Microorganisms · 2024Review
- Experimental Evolution Studies in Φ6 Cystovirus.Viruses · 2024Review
- Fluctuating selection facilitates the discovery of broadly effective but difficult to reach adaptive outcomes in yeast.Evolution letters · 2024Article
- Article
- Convergent genetic adaptation ofFrontiers in molecular biosciences · 2024Article
- Genomic and ecological factors shaping specialism and generalism across an entire subphylum.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- The transcriptomic signature of responses to larval crowding in Drosophila melanogaster.Insect science · 2023Article
- Metagenomics reveals the structure ofVirus evolution · 2023Article
- Phage-resistant mutations impact bacteria susceptibility to future phage infections and antibiotic response.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Exploring the expanse between theoretical questions and experimental approaches in the modern study of evolvability.Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution · 2023Article
- Effective specialist or jack of all trades? Experimental evolution of a crop pest in fluctuating and stable environments.Evolutionary applications · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Specialism is widespread in nature, generating and maintaining diversity, but recent work has demonstrated that generalists can be equally fit as specialists in some shared environments. This no-cost generalism challenges the maxim that 'the jack of all trades is the master of none', and requires evolutionary genetic mechanisms explaining the existence of specialism and no-cost generalism, and the persistence of specialism in the face of selection for generalism. Examining three well-described mechanisms with respect to epistasis and pleiotropy indicates that sign (or antagonistic) pleiotropy without epistasis cannot explain no-cost generalism and that magnitude pleiotropy without epistasis (including directional selection and mutation accumulation) cannot explain the persistence of specialism. However, pleiotropy with epistasis can explain all. Furthermore, epistatic pleiotropy may allow past habitat use to influence future use of novel environments, thereby affecting disease emergence and populations' responses to habitat change.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.