Evolution in Eggs and Phases: Experimental Evolution of Fecundity and Reproductive Timing in Caenorhabditis elegans

To examine the role of natural selection in fecundity in a variety of Caenorhabditis elegans genetic backgrounds, we used an experimental evolution protocol to evolve 14 distinct genetic strains over 15–20 generations. The study tracked 790 genealogies across wild-type and mutant strains, finding that selective effects on fecundity occurred primarily in early generations, while reproductive timing selection operated on longer timescales.