新发传染病（EID）不仅会导致野生动物数量灾难性下降，还会产生可能导致快速进化反应的选择压力。其中一种 EID 是塔斯马尼亚袋獾的袋獾面部肿瘤病 (DFTD)。 DFTD 几乎总是致命的，并且使个体的平均寿命缩短了约 2 年，可能导致对降低疾病易感性的性状进行强烈选择，但种群数量下降也使塔斯马尼亚袋獾容易受到近交衰退的影响。我们分析了塔斯马尼亚州菲欣纳半岛塔斯马尼亚袋獾种群持续研究的 22 年数据，目的是 (1) 通过估计 DFTD 与体型特征之间的表型和遗传相关性，确定 DFTD 是否可能导致体型选择。 2) 估计对 DFTD 易感性的加性遗传方差，以及 (3) 研究体型特征或对 DFTD 的易感性是否受到近交抑制。我们发现头部宽度和 DFTD 易感性之间存在正表型关系，但这并没有遗传相关性的支持。相反，我们发现体重和 DFTD 易感性之间存在负表型关系，并且有证据表明 DFTD 易感性和体重之间存在负遗传相关性。对 DFTD、头宽和体重的易感性存在加性遗传变异，但没有证据表明这些性状存在近交衰退。这些结果表明，塔斯马尼亚恶魔有可能对 DFTD 做出适应性反应，尽管实现的进化反应将进一步取决于 DFTD 本身的进化。© 2024 作者。约翰·威利出版的《分子生态学》

Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) not only cause catastrophic declines in wildlife populations but also generate selective pressures that may result in rapid evolutionary responses. One such EID is devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) in the Tasmanian devil. DFTD is almost always fatal and has reduced the average lifespan of individuals by around 2 years, likely causing strong selection for traits that reduce susceptibility to the disease, but population decline has also left Tasmanian devils vulnerable to inbreeding depression. We analysed 22 years of data from an ongoing study of a population of Tasmanian devils on Freycinet Peninsula, Tasmania, to (1) identify whether DFTD may be causing selection on body size, by estimating phenotypic and genetic correlations between DFTD and size traits, (2) estimate the additive genetic variance of susceptibility to DFTD, and (3) investigate whether size traits or susceptibility to DFTD were under inbreeding depression. We found a positive phenotypic relationship between head width and susceptibility to DFTD, but this was not underpinned by a genetic correlation. Conversely, we found a negative phenotypic relationship between body weight and susceptibility to DFTD, and there was evidence for a negative genetic correlation between susceptibility to DFTD and body weight. There was additive genetic variance in susceptibility to DFTD, head width and body weight, but there was no evidence for inbreeding depression in any of these traits. These results suggest that Tasmanian devils have the potential to respond adaptively to DFTD, although the realised evolutionary response will critically further depend on the evolution of DFTD itself.© 2024 The Author(s). Molecular Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.