Warming and the loss of genetic diversity are two major components of global change for which the combined effects on the productivity and the size distribution of ectotherms have rarely been investigated. However, because genetic diversity should make populations more resilient to environmental changes, the loss of genetic diversity within populations could amplify the impacts of warming on ectotherm populations. Here, we fil...

Although animal dispersal is known to play key roles in ecological and evolutionary processes such as colonization, population extinction and local adaptation, little is known about its genetic basis, particularly in vertebrates. Untapping the genetic basis of dispersal should deepen our understanding of how dispersal behaviour evolves, the molecular mechanisms that regulate it and link it to other phenotypic aspects in order...

Climate‐modulated parasitism is driven by a range of factors, yet the spatial and temporal variability of this relationship has received scant attention in wild vertebrate hosts. Moreover, most prior studies overlooked the intraspecific differences across host morphotypes, which impedes a full understanding of the climate–parasitism relationship. In the common lizard ( Zootoca vivipara ), females exhibit three colour morphs: y...

Historical factors (colonization scenarios, demographic oscillations) and contemporary processes (population connectivity, current population size) largely contribute to shaping species’ present‐day genetic diversity and structure. In this study, we use a combination of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA markers to understand the role of Quaternary climatic oscillations and present‐day gene flow dynamics in determining the genetic...

The relationship between mating systems and dispersal has generally been studied at the population and species levels. It has hardly ever been investigated at the individual level, by studying the variations of mating and dispersal strategies between individuals. We investigated this relationship in a natural population of the common lizard ( Lacerta vivipara ). Assuming that dispersal has a genetic basis, juvenile dispersal w...

Genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) are the most polymorphic loci known in vertebrates. Two main hypotheses have been put forward to explain the maintenance of MHC diversity: pathogen‐mediated selection and MHC‐based mate choice. Host–parasite interactions can maintain MHC diversity via frequency‐dependent selection, heterozygote advantage, and diversifying selection (spatially and/or temporally heterogeneous s...