Original publication testing predictions concerning the evolutionary and ecological consequences of color polymorphisms in Australian reptiles (Saures, Serpentes) to show significantly positive correlations between color polymorphism and extended niche breadth. Increased phenotypic diversity within species appears to be directly correlated with population stability, as these species appear to be an order of magnitude less affected by population contractions, which increases local extinction risk, and has thus direct consequences for decision making in conservation management strategies. Obvious weakness: the study did not rely on sound population genetic and phylogenetic approaches to first decide upon population and species statuses of diverse colour morphs within nominal (taxonomic) species.

Highlight on a recent publication on Australian reptiles (Saures, Serpentes) to show high correlations among color polymorphism and extended niche breadth. More diversity within species appears to be directly correlated with population stability, as these species appear to be an order of magnitude less affected by population contractions, which might lead to local extinctions.

The fitness effects of classes of DNA mutations can be inferred from patterns of nucleotide variation. A number of studies have attributed differences in levels of polymorphism and divergence between silent and replacement mutations to the action of natural selection. Here, I investigate the statistical power to detect directional selection through contrasts of DNA variation among functional categories of mutations. A variety of statistical approaches are applied to DNA data simulated under Sawyer and Hartl?s Poisson random field model. Under assumptions of free recombination and stationarity, comparisons that include both the frequency distributions of mutations segregating within populations and the numbers of mutations fixed between populations have substantial power to detect even very weak selection. Frequency distribution and divergence tests are applied to silent and replacement mutations among five alleles of each of eight Drosophila simulans genes. Putatively "preferred" silent mutations segregate at higher frequencies and are more often fixed between species than "unpreferred" silent changes, suggesting fitness differences among synonymous codons. Amino acid changes tend to be either rare polymorphisms or fixed differences, consistent with a combination of deleterious and adaptive protein evolution. In these data, a substantial fraction of both silent and replacement DNA mutations appear to affect fitness.

The population genetic perspective is that the processes shaping genomic variation can be revealed only through simultaneous investigation of sequence polymorphism and divergence within and between closely related species. Here we present a population genetic analysis of Drosophila simulans based on whole-genome shotgun sequencing of multiple inbred lines and comparison of the resulting data to genome assemblies of the closely related species, D. melanogaster and D. yakuba. We discovered previously unknown, large-scale fluctuations of polymorphism and divergence along chromosome arms, and significantly less polymorphism and faster divergence on the X chromosome. We generated a comprehensive list of functional elements in the D. simulans genome influenced by adaptive evolution. Finally, we characterized genomic patterns of base composition for coding and noncoding sequence. These results suggest several new hypotheses regarding the genetic and biological mechanisms controlling polymorphism and divergence across the Drosophila genome, and provide a rich resource for the investigation of adaptive evolution and functional variation in D. simulans.