Coevolution

John N Thompson, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA

Published online: April 2001

DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0001761

Coevolution is the process of reciprocal evolutionary change between interacting species, driven by natural selection. It is one of the major processes organizing the Earth's biodiversity into interrelated communities of species.

Keywords: biodiversity; community organization; conservation; genetic diversity; macroevolution

 Further Reading
    book Burdon JJ (1997) "The evolution of gene-for-gene interactions in natural pathosystems". In: Crute IR, Holub EB and Burdon JJ (eds) The Gene-for-Gene Relationship in Plant–Parasite Interactions, pp. 245–262. Walingford, UK: CAB International.
    Davies NB and Brooke M de L (1989) An experimental study of co-evolution between the cuckoo, Cuculus canornus, and its hosts. II. Host egg markings, chick discrimination and general discussion. Journal of Animal Ecology 58: 225–236.
    book Douglas AE (1994) Symbiotic Interactions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    Ebert D and Hamilton WD (1996) Sex against virulence: the coevolution of parasitic diseases. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 11: 79–82.
    Farrell BD and Mitter C (1998) The timing of insect/plant diversification: might Tetraopes (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) and Asclepias (Asclepiadaceae) have co-evolved? Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 63: 553–577.
    Lively CM (1996) Host–parasite coevolution and sex. BioScience 46: 107–114.
    book Margulis L (1993) Symbiosis and Cell Evolution, 2nd edn. New York: WH Freeman & Sons.
    May RM and Anderson RM (1990) Parasite–host coevolution. Parasitology 100: 89–101.
    Pellmyr O, Thompson JN, Brown JM and Harrison RG (1996) Evolution of pollination mutualism in the yucca moth lineage. American Naturalist 148: 827–847.
    Schluter D (1994) Experimental evidence that competition promotes divergence in adaptive radiation. Science 266: 798–801.
    book Thompson JN (1994) The Coevolutionary Process. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Related Sub-Topics:

Coevolution | Evolutionary Processes | Evolutionary Ecology | Herbivory, Predation and Parasitism
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Article Title: Coevolution
 
How to Cite close
Thompson, John N(Apr 2001) Coevolution. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1038/npg.els.0001761]