I am having trouble figuring out what is a phenotypic mismatch from this article

Question

I am having trouble figuring out what is a phenotypic mismatch from this article I have to read it is asking

1.What do the authors mean by the term ‘phenotypic mismatch’? How does it apply to this study?

2. Where do mismatches between snake resistance and newt toxicity occur and what is the nature of the mismatch in each case?

the article can be found here http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.0060060

it talks a lot about mismatch but I'm not getting a clear cut it is this so any help pointing that out would be really helpful

Explanation / Answer

1.

Phenotypic mismatch is the shortest distance between the mean traits (tetrodotoxin resistance of snakes) of each locality of a population and the maximum value of attack ability and handling time is minimum is known as phenotypic mismatch that means how well adapted heterotrophic species is attacking and handling at a particular resources.

This method helps in estimating the shortest distance from a point to a line. If the mismatch is larger than the smaller the attack rate and the larger the handling time. Since Garter snakes have developed dramatic resistance to the tetrodotoxin defense of their local prey. By determining   the value of mismatches between toxicity and resistance it provides accurate knowledge about their attacking movement and coevolutionary path of how they develop the resistance to the tetradoxin defense of their local prey.

2.

Here mismatch occur between snake resistance from six populations of newts viz Parsnip Lake, Oregon; Bear Ridge, California; Inland Lake, British Columbia; Crescent City, California; Latah, Idaho; and Scott Lake, Oregon with little or no TTX(tetradoxin) . If phenotypic changes in resistance are caused by one or a few genes then presence of such genes in snake populations lead to phenotypic mismatches in one or few evolutionary steps.

The other four mismatches for toxicity include four populations of moderately to highly toxic newts from San Mateo, California; East Bay, California; Willow Creek, California; and Omo, California that appear with the most resistant snake populations of above population.

The natural resources for the evolutionary processes required long-term biological diversity that allow a long-term shifting of geographical process of coevolutionary hotspots and coldspots.

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