Editing Interactor (section)

== Research on common garden snails as illustration for natural selection and interactors ==

A study on common garden snails was performed and showed how natural selection on an interactor works. This [[species]] is highly suitable for evolutionary research due to their easily to score [[phenotype]] and their very straightforward genotype causing the [[phenotypic variation]]. Phenotypic variation among common garden snails can be found in their shell colour and banding and both colouring and banding is regulated by one single [[gene]]. The snail shells have variations in colours namely brown, pink and yellow; with brown being more [[Dominance (genetics)|dominant]] than pink and yellow. Furthermore, banding variation can be described as unbanded and banded, with banded individuals differing from another by the number of bands. One of the conclusions that could be drawn out of this research is that in grasslands, yellow individuals had a higher survival rate and were more abundant in these grasslands. This means that natural selection acted on the shell colour, which means that shell colour is the interactor in this example. Furthermore, they found that the brown individuals were more abundant and had a higher survival rate in woodlands than the yellow individuals. Moreover, a specific form of natural selection called thermal selection showed that shell colour worked in the interaction with the environment by yellow shells being more abundant, so more adjusted to reflect heat, in warmer places.