协同演化概念的发展、使用误区与研究证据

The development, misuse and evidence of the concept “coevolution”

自然选择是生物演化的重要动力,而协同演化的理念使人们认识到,互作物种之间彼此交互的选择也可以驱动物种发生演化.自1964年正式提出以来,协同演化的概念经历了充分的发展与拓展,但使用误区也多种多样;虽然不断有研究验证一些生态互作关系的确是协同演化,但质疑协同演化关系真实性的论断也时有报道.为了理清协同演化概念中存在的认识误区,我们尝试提出避免误区的3条简要准则,即具有互作关系、交互选择、协同系统发生.通过文献计量学分析量化了协同演化概念的发展,显示协同演化概念向非进化生物学领域的迅猛拓展,同时统计结果也揭示了人们对多个易与协同演化概念混淆的术语的使用情况尚在合理的范围.依据生态关系,我们总结了现有的发生协同演化的互作系统及证据;介绍了协同演化的地理镶嵌理论的内容与案例.对协同演化概念的历史梳理、文献计量、证据收集和前沿发展方向的介绍,有助于促进人们对协同演化的深入理解,避免误用术语,期望为后续协同演化方向的研究提供有益的参考.

Natural selection is one of the most important components of organic evolution,while the concept of coevolution proposes that reciprocal selection generated by interacting species could also drive their organic evolution.Formally raised in 1964,the concept of coevolution has extensively developed,but been misused or even abused.Although continuously emerging studies have verified that some ecological interactions are indeed coevolution,queries of whether it is an acceptable concept remain.To clarify the precise use of the concept,we list and re-induce mistakes in using or misunderstanding of coevolution.Here a concise principle for correct usage is suggested,i.e.confirming three aspects:species interaction,reciprocal selection as well as co-phylogenesis.Bibliometric methods are applied to quantify the development of the coevolution concept,showing the bursting expansion of the term'coevolution'into study fields beyond evolutionary biology,and revealing that current usage of'coevolution'still remains within a reasonable range.Currently,studies of ecological interactions are commonly considered as in the coevolution field.Differences and commonsense of the other six related terms,namely coadaptation,cooperation,interaction,interplay,mutualism and symbiosis,are briefly discussed.Finally,case studies of frontier topics of coevolution,geographic mosaic theory of coevolution,are introduced.A better understanding of the coevolution concept could be achieved if misuse or abuse is avoided.This paper may provide references for future coevolution studies.