A team of evolutionary biologists from city-based National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) have been awarded the 2018 Presidential Award from the American Society of Naturalists (ASN). This is the first time researchers in Asia have been presented with the award. The award is given to an outstanding research article published in the society’s journal, The American Naturalist. Jahnavi Joshi, Anupama Prakash and lead author Krushnamegh Kunte from NCBS had, in a research paper published in the journal in April 2017, probed how evolutionary processes shape the formation of ecological communities in diverse tropical ecosystems.

While the ASN was founded in 1883 to study evolution, ecology and animal behaviour, the presidential award was started in 1984. “It’s a terrific recognition for my research group, and a great personal honour,” said Prof. Kunte in a release.

Their research paper looked at evolutionary convergence (when different species evolve the same mechanisms to deal with evolutionary pressures) among the groups of ‘palatable’ — that is, non-toxic — butterflies who mimic the colours and patterns of toxic butterflies that are avoided by predators. The team focused on butterfly species in the Western Ghats, and on these ecological communities called ‘Mimicry rings’.

The research paper challenged some previously believed thoughts around evolution. For instance, contrary to the assumption that mimicry rings are formed from convergent evolution between highly dissimilar butterflies, the NCBS team discovered that toxic butterfly species in the mimicry rings are indeed closely-related, sharing their ancestral, warning-wing colour patterns even when new species are formed. The mimics join the mimicry rings after remarkable bouts of convergent evolution, sometimes separated by tens of millions of years.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Staff Reporter / April 07th, 2018