Det ”alternativa livet” kan ses som en motrörelse till urbanisering, ökad konsumtion och ett allt snabbare tempo i samhället. Detta är en kvalitativ studie med syftet att undersöka det alternativa livet. Sex informanter intervjuades om deras upplevelser och uppfattningar av det alternativa livet. Intervjuerna transkriberades och analyserades utifrån en induktiv tematisk metod. Gemensamt för alla informanter är att de vill leva enkelt utifrån grundläggande behov, leva nära naturen, reducera saker livet som de upplever mindre viktiga, anta utmaningar och få mer tid över för sådant de upplever meningsfullt. Genom reduktion upplever infomanterna en större livskvalité och närvaro i nuet. Kombinationen av individuella faktorer och en vilja att leva mer miljömässigt hållbart kan ses som de stora orsakerna till varför de intervjuade väljer att leva alternativt. Resultaten har tolkats utifrån behovsmässig teori, existentiell psykologi och Antonovskys Känsla av Sammanhang. / The “alternative life” can be described as a counter movement to the urban society, increased consummation and a stressful lifestyle. The aim of this qualitative study is to examine the alternative life on the countryside. Six informants were interviewed about their experiences and views about the alternative life. The data is transcribed and analyzed with an inductive, thematic approach. The informants want to live with more simplicity, intimate with their basic needs, live close to nature, reducing less important things in life, challenging themselves and having more time for things they find meaningful. The informants experience more quality in life and presence in the moment through reduction. The main reasons for the informants to live an “alternative life” are the combination of individual factors and a desire to live more environmentally friendly. The results have been analyzed from behavioral theory, existential psychology and Antovskys “Sense of Coherence”.

Life history traits affect the timing and pattern of maturation, reproduction, and survival during an organism’s lifecycle and are the major components influencing Darwinian fitness. Co-evolved patterns of these traits are known as life history strategies (LHS) and variation occurs between individuals, populations, and species. The polymorphisms underlying LHS are important targets of natural selection, yet the underlying genes and physiological mechanisms remain largely unknown. Mapping the genetic basis of a LHS and subsequently unraveling the associated physiological mechanisms is a challenging task, as complex phenotypes are often polygenic. However, in several systems discrete LHS are maintained within the population and are inherited as a single locus with pleiotropic effects. These systems provide a promising starting point for investigation into LHS mechanisms and this thesis focuses on one such strategy - the Alba polymorphism in Colias butterflies. Alba is inherited as a single autosomal locus, expressed only in females, and simultaneously affects development rate, reproductive potential, and wing color. Alba females are white, while the alternative morph is yellow/orange. About 28 of 90 species exhibit polymorphic females, though whether the Alba mechanism and associated tradeoffs are conserved across the genus remains to be determined. In this thesis I primarily focus on the species Colias croceus and integrate results from lipidomics, transcriptomics, microscopy, and genomics to gain insights to the proximate mechanisms underlying Alba and Alba’s evolution within the genus. Lipidomics confirm that, consistent with findings in New World species, C. croceus Alba females have larger abdominal lipid stores than orange, an advantage which is temperature dependent and arises primarily due to mobilized lipids. Gene expression data suggests differences in resource allocation, with Alba females investing in reproduction rather than wing color, consistent with previous findings in other Colias species. Additionally, I identify a morphological basis for Alba’s white wing color. Alba females from C. croceus, an Old World species, and Colias eurytheme, a New World species both exhibit a significant reduction in pigment granules, the structures within the wing scale that contain pigment. This is a trait that seems to be unique to Colias as other white Pierid butterflies have an abundance of pigment granules, similar to orange females. I also map the genetic basis of Alba to a single genomic region containing an Alba specific, Jockey-like transposable element insertion. Interestingly this transposable element​ is located downstream of BarH-1, a gene known to affect pigment granule formation in Drosophila. Finally, I construct a phylogeny using a global distribution of 20 Colias species to facilitate investigations of Alba’s evolution within the genus. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>