Roe deer on ice: selection despite limited effective population size
through the Pleistocene
Abstract
Roe deer (Capreolus spp.) are a little odd. They are one of only a few
placental mammals — and the only genus among even-toed ungulates —
capable of putting embryonic development “on ice”, also known as
embryonic diapause (Fig. 1). It would seem such an unusual trait is
likely the product of natural selection, but a big question is, how does
selection for important traits, such as diapause, interact with the
historical demography of a species? In a ‘From the Cover’ article in
this issue of Molecular Ecology, de Jong et al. (2020) demonstrate that
selection is acting on genes associated with reproductive biology in roe
deer, despite heightened genetic drift due to reduced effective
population size through the Pleistocene.