CREAFTalk with Philips Akinwole - Same Species, Different Cities: The Unpredictable Geography of Urban Evolution

Urban environments impose strong but heterogeneous selective pressures, raising a central question: do cities drive predictable evolutionary responses? Philips and his team examined cyanogenesis, a two-locus anti-herbivore defense polymorphism in white clover (Trifolium repens), across 269 populations and 4,035 plants in nine Midwestern U.S. cities. Despite nearly threefold variation in cyanogenic frequency, neither regional climate nor human footprint consistently explained patterns across cities. Instead, urban-rural clines were strongly nonparallel. Analyses of individual cyanotypes revealed finer-scale associations, particularly between the linamarase-only cyanotype and local temperature and vegetation. These results highlight genetic architecture, spatial scale, and local selective mosaics as key drivers of urban evolution. 

Who is Philips Akinwole?

Dr. Philips Akinwole is a microbial and ecosystem ecologist and faculty member at DePauw University, Indiana. His research examines how environmental variation shapes microbial communities, functional diversity, and plant traits across natural and human-modified ecosystems. His work spans subterranean microbiomes, soil microbial ecology, and urban ecological variation, integrating field studies, experiments, and molecular approaches. He is committed to mentoring undergraduate researchers and involving students in collaborative, publication-oriented science. His recent research includes studies of the Deep Darkness cave microbiome and urban variation in cyanogenesis in white clover. He spent 2 months in CREAF this past summer with the soil lab team.