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Developmental Plasticity And Evolution
Abstract
Developmental Plasticity and Evolution
... Are highly social groups often comprised of closely related individuals because kin selection shaped the evolution of social insects, or are high levels of relatedness a secondary byproduct of social group living? Here, ecoevodevo perspectives are beginning to provide complementary opportunities to assess causes and mechanisms in the evolution of insect sociality (West-Eberhard, 2003;Toth & Rehan, 2017). For instance, the many examples of extant, facultatively (eu)social taxa raise the possibility that certain forms of sociality may have initially evolved as alternative phenotypes, expressed in some conditions (e.g. ...
... Phylogenetic analyses further suggest that persistence of environmental states (e.g. consistently short or long seasons in higher and lower latitudes, respectively) may result in the secondary loss of alternate states, rendering populations obligately solitary or eusocial, depending on their geographic location (West-Eberhard, 2003). Such plasticity-first perspectives on the evolution of insect sociality do not diminish the potential explanatory value of more traditional frameworks, but instead illustrate how ecoevodevo perspective are able to supplement additional perspectives potentially amenable to experimental assessment. ...
... For example, plasticity may promote diversification by enabling populations to diverge in their location-specific optimal responses to environmental challenges, by providing new targets on which selection can act, and by generating novel trade-offs during trait development (Moczek, 2010). Further, over generations, plastic trait expression may become ameliorated in populations via genetic accommodation and assimilation (West-Eberhard 2003, 2005Waddington 1942Waddington , 1959Baldwin 1896;Nijhout et al. 2021). In all of these contexts, considering E x E interactions rather than the effects of singular environmental variable affords a more comprehensive and nuanced appreciation of the role of plasticity in evolution, including that of insects. ...
... For example, adaptive plasticity may delay a population's extinction, "buying time" for the appearance of new beneficial mutations (Diamond and Martin 2021;Levis and Pfennig 2021). Plasticity may also play a role that could be important for setting the course of evolution (e.g., Gilbert and Epel 2009;Schlichting and Pigliucci 1998;Waddington 1942;West-Eberhard 2003). In this perspective, evolution of new genetically determined traits occurs through plastic intermediates (Waddington 1942;West-Eberhard 2003). ...
... Plasticity may also play a role that could be important for setting the course of evolution (e.g., Gilbert and Epel 2009;Schlichting and Pigliucci 1998;Waddington 1942;West-Eberhard 2003). In this perspective, evolution of new genetically determined traits occurs through plastic intermediates (Waddington 1942;West-Eberhard 2003). In the initial stages of the process that Waddington called genetic assimilation, some organisms in a population produce a new beneficial trait as a plastic response. ...
... Selection then increases the frequency of the different alleles that favor the development of such trait, facilitating its appearance. In this process, genes take further control of the construction of the new trait, eventually making unnecessary the induction by nongenetic factors (Waddington 1942;West-Eberhard 2003). ...
Phenotypic plasticity is an organism's ability to produce a different phenotype in response to nongenetic perturbations such as environmental disturbances. Beneficial phenotypic plasticity can be important in evolution. After an environmental disturbance, it can delay extinction giving opportunity to the appearance of beneficial mutations. In addition, plasticity may also be one of the factors that define the course that evolution takes, for example, through genetic assimilation. This is a process in which a phenotype that initially appears as a plastic response becomes under genetic control. In the end, development of such a phenotype does not require the factor that originally induced it. Here, I use a model of the evolution of gene regulatory networks to study the range of conditions that allow the association between plasticity and the course of evolution. I assayed conditions like the difference between ancestral and optimum phenotypes, the difficulty to build the optimum phenotype, the complexity of the developmental system, mutation rate, strength of plasticity limitations, fitness advantage of the optima, and the similarity between the initially induced phenotype and the optimum. I found that populations that yield a beneficial phenotype through plasticity most often evolve a similar genetically determined phenotype under all the conditions that I assayed. I also identified conditions that facilitate evolution through genetic assimilation. Notwithstanding, even under less favorable circumstances, this form of evolution still confers easier access to a new genetically determined optimum.
... Projected biodiversity losses from anthropogenic global change this century [1,2] necessitate an understanding of the magnitude and mechanisms of adaptive phenotypic responses to environmental change [3,4]. Although organisms can rapidly evolve in response to global change [5][6][7], environmentally induced phenotypic plasticity-defined as the capacity for a given genotype to express different phenotypes across different environments [8] -is a primary mechanism by which organisms respond to environmental changes [9,10]. Phenotypic plasticity is considered adaptive when environmentally induced trait changes improve an organism's fitness, thereby reducing phenotype-environment mismatches that could lead to extinction [11,12]. ...
... In the absence of microbiome mediate rescue, the relative importance of other mechanisms, including phenotypic plasticity and adaptation from standing genetic variation, in reducing phenotype-environment mismatches is even greater [7,8,79,80]. These mechanisms shape the phenotypic response of organisms to environmental challenges [8,9,81]. ...
... In the absence of microbiome mediate rescue, the relative importance of other mechanisms, including phenotypic plasticity and adaptation from standing genetic variation, in reducing phenotype-environment mismatches is even greater [7,8,79,80]. These mechanisms shape the phenotypic response of organisms to environmental challenges [8,9,81]. It is plausible that microbiome-driven adaptive plasticity is also a component of adaptive plasticity but operates on longer timescales [24] or requires transgenerational effects [25], as suggested by the microbiota-mediated transgenerational acclimatization concept [82]. ...
Phenotypic plasticity is a primary mechanism by which organismal phenotypes shift in response to the environment. Host-associated microbiomes often change considerably in response to environmental variation, and these shifts could facilitate host phenotypic plasticity, adaptation, or rescue populations from extinction. However, it is unclear whether changes in microbiome composition contribute to host phenotypic plasticity, limiting our knowledge of the underlying mechanisms of plasticity and, ultimately, the fate of populations inhabiting changing environments. In this study, we examined the phenotypic responses and microbiome composition of 20 genetically distinct Daphnia magna genotypes exposed to non-toxic and toxic diets containing Microcystis, a cosmopolitan cyanobacterium and common stressor for Daphnia. Daphnia exhibited significant plasticity in survival, reproduction and population growth rates upon exposure to Microcystis. However, the effects of Microcystis exposure on the Daphnia microbiome were limited, with the primary effect being differences in abundance observed across five bacterial families. Moreover, there was no significant correlation between the magnitude of microbiome shifts and host phenotypic plasticity. Our results suggest that microbiome composition played a negligible role in driving host phenotypic plasticity or microbiome-mediated rescue.
... Organisms have two parts: the genome and the rest; the rest is the phenotype (West-Eberhard, 2003). mRNA, DNA repair enzymes, concentration of abscisic acid in maize xylem, soybean root depth, wheat yield, and the amount of anthocyanins in grapevine berries are all aspects of the phenotype. ...
... In contrast to the unidirectional arrows in the G × E × M framework prevalent in crop sciences, more nuanced frameworks of the phenotype have been advanced from evolutionary, developmental biology, physiological and thermodynamic perspectives (Baverstock, 2024;Noble, 2012;Noble, 2017;West-Eberhard, 2003). ...
... In this context, at least two observations justify the strict arrow from phenotype to genotype. The innate rate of error in DNA replication is typically 1 in 10,000 and is lowered to 1 in 10 billion in a vigilance process that involves a suit of unique repair enzymes ; these enzymes are phenotype by definition A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t (West-Eberhard, 2003). This provides a way for the cell to alter the DNA in a targeted process captured in the metaphor "the genes dance to the tune of the cell" . ...
Cause-and-effect arrows are drawn from genotype (G), environment (E), and agronomic management (M) to the plant phenotype in crop stands in a useful but incomplete framework that informs research questions, experimental design, statistical analysis, data interpretation, modelling, and breeding and agronomic applications. Here we focus on the overlooked bidirectionality of these arrows. The phenotype-to-genotype arrow includes increased mutation rates in stressed phenotypes, relative to basal rates. From a developmental viewpoint, the phenotype modulates gene expression, returning multiple cellular phenotypes with a common genome. The phenotype-to-environment arrow is captured in the process of niche construction, which spans from persistent and global to transient and local. Research on crop rotations recognizes the influence of the phenotype on the environment but is divorced from niche construction theory. The phenotype-to-management arrow involves, for example, a diseased crop that may trigger fungicide treatment. Making explicit the bidirectionality of the arrows in the G×E×M framework contributes to narrowing the gap between data-driven technologies and integrative theory, and is an invitation to think cautiously of the internal teleonomy of plants in contrast to the view of the phenotype as the passive end of the arrows in the current framework.
... Perhaps the defining quality of adaptive radiations is rapid evolution upon exposure to new environments. New environments should induce a plastic response, and there is now plentiful evidence that adaptive radiations are in some cases seeded by phenotypic plasticitythe capacity of a developmental system to produce phenotypic variation in response to environmental cues (Levis and Pfennig, 2019;West-Eberhard, 2003). Plasticity-induced trait variation can help populations persist in novel environments ("the Baldwin effect:" Baldwin, 1896;Simpson, 1953) and can then become refined ("accommodated") and eventually "assimilated" whereby an environmental cue is no longer a requirement of its development (Waddington, 1953;West-Eberhard, 2003). ...
... New environments should induce a plastic response, and there is now plentiful evidence that adaptive radiations are in some cases seeded by phenotypic plasticitythe capacity of a developmental system to produce phenotypic variation in response to environmental cues (Levis and Pfennig, 2019;West-Eberhard, 2003). Plasticity-induced trait variation can help populations persist in novel environments ("the Baldwin effect:" Baldwin, 1896;Simpson, 1953) and can then become refined ("accommodated") and eventually "assimilated" whereby an environmental cue is no longer a requirement of its development (Waddington, 1953;West-Eberhard, 2003). Models of plasticity-led evolution, such as the flexible stem hypothesis (West-Eberhard, 2003), state that extant patterns of phenotypic diversity are partly determined by the plastic capacities of ancestral ("stem") lineages (Parsons et al., 2016;Wund et al., 2008). ...
... Plasticity-induced trait variation can help populations persist in novel environments ("the Baldwin effect:" Baldwin, 1896;Simpson, 1953) and can then become refined ("accommodated") and eventually "assimilated" whereby an environmental cue is no longer a requirement of its development (Waddington, 1953;West-Eberhard, 2003). Models of plasticity-led evolution, such as the flexible stem hypothesis (West-Eberhard, 2003), state that extant patterns of phenotypic diversity are partly determined by the plastic capacities of ancestral ("stem") lineages (Parsons et al., 2016;Wund et al., 2008). The capacity of ancestral populations to produce derived ecotypes when reared in novel environments (Parsons et al., 2016;Rohner et al., 2022;Wund et al., 2008; Figure 1G) further suggests a role for plasticity-led evolution in adaptive radiations (Levis and Pfennig, 2019;Pfennig et al., 2010). ...
Efforts to reconcile development and evolution have demonstrated that development is biased, with phenotypic variation being more readily produced in certain directions. However, how this “developmental bias” can influence micro- and macroevolution is poorly understood. In this review, we demonstrate that defining features of adaptive radiations suggest a role for developmental bias in driving adaptive divergence. These features are i) common ancestry of developmental systems; ii) rapid evolution along evolutionary “lines of least resistance;” iii) the subsequent repeated and parallel evolution of ecotypes; and iv) evolutionary change “led” by biased phenotypic plasticity upon exposure to novel environments. Drawing on empirical and theoretical data, we highlight the reciprocal relationship between development and selection as a key driver of evolutionary change, with development biasing what variation is exposed to selection, and selection acting to mold these biases to align with the adaptive landscape. Our central thesis is that developmental biases are both the causes and consequences of adaptive radiation and divergence. We argue throughout that incorporating development and developmental bias into our thinking can help to explain the exaggerated rate and scale of evolutionary processes that characterize adaptive radiations, and that this can be best achieved by using an eco-evo-devo framework incorporating evolutionary biology, development, and ecology. Such a research program would demonstrate that development is not merely a force that imposes constraints on evolution, but rather directs and is directed by evolutionary forces. We round out this review by highlighting key gaps in our understanding and suggest further research programs that can help to resolve these issues.
... Beyond flexible traits that vary with environmental conditions within an organism's lifespan, it will also be important to examine how captivity influences trait development (Section 3.2). Some traits, like phenological ones, can be quite flexible after development, while others may only be receptive to cues during specific developmental windows (West-Eberhard 2003;Sultan 2017;Snell-Rood et al. 2018). Additionally, the degree to which conditions vary across breeding facilities must be evaluated as environmental heterogeneity among facilities has the potential to impact both fitness surfaces and plastic responses (Section 3.3). ...
... For example, some individuals in populations of partially migratory birds will migrate in a given year, but remain on the breeding grounds in another (Buchan et al. 2019;Chapman et al. 2011). However, some plastic responses occur in response to environmental cues early in development, the effects of which may or may not be reversible (West-Eberhard 2003). Similarly, some traits might plastically respond to the release environment, while others will be canalised during development in captivity ( Figure 3B). ...
Fitness surfaces offer a valuable tool for bridging the gap between captive breeding programmes and wild populations. By quantifying the relationship between phenotypes and reproductive success in captive and wild settings, fitness surfaces can help identify the fitness consequences of phenotypic change in either environment. Measuring fitness surfaces in captive and wild populations from the same species would help us to predict the success of reintroduction efforts and help inform the selection of release candidates. Overall, the inclusion of fitness surface estimates into conservation breeding programmes increases the effectiveness of reintroduction efforts and should improve our understanding of evolution at the interface of human‐managed and wild populations. Beyond conservation breeding, fitness surfaces may have applications for at‐risk species such as predicting outcomes in range expansions, translocation or under changing environmental conditions.
... The results presented here show that, even with relatively small sample sizes, single species can display network variation. Variability in natural populations is a crucial property for evolution by natural selection to be possible (Huxley, 1942;Schlichting & Pigliucci, 1998;West-Eberhard, 2003). The omission of within-species variation in the conceptual framework of AnNA thus seems out of place. ...
... It is worth mentioning that we explored variability within groups but that we have not included environmental differences within our portrayal of this variability. Indeed, if variation exists within a species, then it is likely that populations of that species inhabiting different environments will display environment-specific phenotypes (West-Eberhard, 2003. For instance, different temperature regimes during larval development affect the number of vertebrae in the axolotl, Ambystoma mexicanum (Ackerly & Ward, 2015). ...
Modularity and integration are key developmental properties and have remained central in evo‐devo research because of how they relate to evolvability. While modularity and integration have commonly been assessed with landmark‐based geometric morphometrics (GMM), other methods such as anatomical network analysis (AnNA) are increasingly being explored. Nonetheless, AnNA has seldom been used to assess variability within taxa, and there have been no attempts to verify whether its results are commensurate with GMM. We used the pectoral girdle of members of the Chrosomus eos‐neogaeus hybridization complex as a case study system to assess differences between AnNA and GMM‐based approaches and discuss how they should be best used. The general anatomy and composition of the pectoral girdle do not vary much within the complex; however, bones within the pectoral girdle show significant diversity in morphology and in the presence of sutures. Indeed, C. neogaeus displays characteristically enlarged coracoids and radials, and bone fusion between the cleithra, coracoids, and radials, while C. eos displays a gracile and unfused pectoral girdle. Hybrids display morphologies that are distinct from both parental species. AnNA detected multiple potential patterns of modularity, and GMM supported similar patterns of modularity across the complex but suggested different trajectories of morphological variation. Altogether, AnNA can be a valuable tool to formulate novel hypotheses in understudied taxa, which may then be tested using GMM, but careful morphological descriptions of skeletal systems are a valuable addition to the interpretation of both AnNA and GMM approaches.
... However, the form of regulatory pathways through which polyphenisms evolve remains largely unknown. Polyphenisms are multivariate plastic responses; the expression of many different types of traits (e.g., morphological, behavioral, physiological) make up a 'morphotype' (Schlichting, 1989;Nijhout, 2003;West-Eberhard, 2003;Murren, 2012;Nielsen & Papaj, 2022). The coordinated expression of different plastic phenotypes making up a morphotype could occur via shared control of different component traits of the phenotype or through independent activation of the traits (Cheverud, 1996;West-Eberhard, 2003;Klingenberg, 2008;Nielsen & Papaj, 2022). ...
... Polyphenisms are multivariate plastic responses; the expression of many different types of traits (e.g., morphological, behavioral, physiological) make up a 'morphotype' (Schlichting, 1989;Nijhout, 2003;West-Eberhard, 2003;Murren, 2012;Nielsen & Papaj, 2022). The coordinated expression of different plastic phenotypes making up a morphotype could occur via shared control of different component traits of the phenotype or through independent activation of the traits (Cheverud, 1996;West-Eberhard, 2003;Klingenberg, 2008;Nielsen & Papaj, 2022). We can start to understand the underlying mechanisms by evaluating the extent to which traits are integrated within a morphotype. ...
Asplanchna brightwellii rotifers have a diet-induced polyphenism; they develop different morphological and life history traits depending upon maternal ingestion of vitamin E. Here, we empirically induce the polyphenism to determine if this multivariate plasticity varies among clonal lines and populations (ponds) and to evaluate whether and how the component traits are integrated. Consistent with previous work, vitamin E induces larger, humped females, some of which reproduce sexually rather than asexually and have lower rates of population growth than the ‘default’ smaller, sac-shaped, asexual morphotype. Clonal lines vary in morphological and life history plasticity within ponds; morphological plasticity also varies among ponds. The correlation of traits across morphs and of plasticity across environments indicates that morphs vary in trait integration and that plasticity of these traits tends to respond to environmental changes independently. We describe how this study provides insights into the developmental and evolutionary mechanisms of this and perhaps similar polyphenisms.
... One possibility is that phenotypic plasticity may mediate the transition from cell-level regulation to group-level regulation of cellular state. Phenotypic plasticity allows organisms to respond to their environment by altering how their phenotype develops [12], as is seen in environmentally induced changes in a unicellular organism's differentiated state. In multicellular organisms, changes in cell interactions and developmental processes can also occur in response to an environmental cue; such plastic responses are group-level traits. ...
... Obligate somatic differentiation may therefore have repeatedly evolved via genetic accommodation. Genetic accommodation [12] occurs when the environmental regulation of a phenotype evolves; this evolution can take the form of increased or decreased plasticity. In the volvocine algae, somatic cell development may have been an ancestrally plastic response to the environment, with plasticity decreasing in lineages with obligate somatic cells [13]. ...
During the evolution of multicellularity, the unit of selection transitions from single cells to integrated multicellular cell groups, necessitating the evolution of group-level traits such as somatic differentiation. However, the processes involved in this change in units of selection are poorly understood. We propose that the evolution of soma in the volvocine algae included an intermediate step involving the plastic development of somatic-like cells. We show that Eudorina elegans, a multicellular volvocine algae species previously thought to be undifferentiated, can develop somatic-like cells following environmental stress (i.e. cold shock). These cells resemble obligate soma in closely related species. We find that somatic-like cells can differentiate directly from cold-shocked cells. This differentiation is a cell-level trait, and the differentiated colony phenotype is a cross-level by-product of cell-level processes. The offspring of cold-shocked colonies also develop somatic-like cells. Since these cells were not directly exposed to the stressor, their differentiation was regulated during group development. Consequently, they are a true group-level trait and not a by-product of cell-level traits. We argue that group-level traits, such as obligate somatic differentiation, can originate through plasticity and that cross-level by-products may be an intermediate step in the evolution of group-level traits.
... Developmental plasticity, shaped by the dynamic interaction between genes and the environment, enables organisms to adjust their developmental pathways, leading to changes in traits like behaviour, physiology, and morphology (Raff and Wolpert, 1996;West-Eberhard, 2003). This ability has important ecological and evolutionary implications, helping individuals and populations to survive and persist under fluctuating environmental conditions (West-Eberhard, 2003;De Witt and Scheiner, 2004). ...
... Developmental plasticity, shaped by the dynamic interaction between genes and the environment, enables organisms to adjust their developmental pathways, leading to changes in traits like behaviour, physiology, and morphology (Raff and Wolpert, 1996;West-Eberhard, 2003). This ability has important ecological and evolutionary implications, helping individuals and populations to survive and persist under fluctuating environmental conditions (West-Eberhard, 2003;De Witt and Scheiner, 2004). Environmental factors, especially those experienced during critical developmental periods, can regulate gene expression, allowing a single genotype to produce different phenotypes (Halloway, 2002;Pigliucci, 2005). ...
Developmental plasticity refers to an organism's ability to adjust its development in response to changing environmental conditions, leading to changes in behaviour, physiology, or morphology. This adaptability is crucial for survival and helps organisms to cope with environmental challenges throughout their lives. Understanding the mechanisms underlying developmental plasticity, particularly how environmental and ontogenetic factors shape functional traits, is fundamental for both evolutionary biology and conservation efforts. In this study we investigated the effects of early-life environmental conditions on the development of claw asymmetry in juvenile European lobsters (Homarus gammarus, N=244), a functional trait essential for survival and ecological success. Juveniles were randomly divided between four different rearing conditions characterized by the presence or absence of physical enrichments (e.g., substrate and shelters), which were introduced at different developmental stages in separated groups to assess the timing and nature of their effect. Results revealed that exposure to substrate alone, without additional stimuli, consistently promoted claw asymmetry, regardless of the timing of its introduction, while the 6th developmental stage emerged as the critical period for claw differentiation. By identifying the environmental factors that influence developmental outcomes in lobsters, and the timing of these effects, this study improves our understanding of developmental plasticity and offers valuable insights for optimizing conservation aquaculture and reintroduction strategies.
... For example, the last ice age Mammoth Steppe Biome that stretched from Western Europe to Beringia disappeared during the Pleistocene-Holocene transitions as its species re-assorted themselves into the modern Tundra, Boreal Forest, and Steppe Biomes (Guthrie, 2001;Raven & Axelrod, 1978). Developmental systems theorists believe that developmental processes play an active role rather than a merely proximate role in evolution (West-Eberhard, 2003). Such considerations have led to controversial proposals to amend the modern synthesis with an extended evolutionary synthesis (Laland et al., 2014). ...
... In the case of genes, modes of non-random phenotypic variation like individual learning can have evolutionary consequences (Levis & Pfennig, 2016). Agentic selection processes like mate choice and other forms of social selection can be important (West-Eberhard, 2003). In the case of cultural evolution, a system with the inheritance of acquired variation, behaviors that are learned by one individual can be transmitted to others. ...
... Unlike permanent genetic mutations, epigenetic modifications are reversible and allow rapid phenotypic adjustments to environmental challenges, a phenomenon known as phenotypic plasticity (Furci et al. 2023). This flexibility is particularly vital for plants in tropical and subtropical regions, where extreme temperatures, salinity, and drought necessitate high adaptability (West-Eberhard 2003;Lämke and Bäurle 2017). ...
... Phenotypic plasticity-the ability of a single genotype to produce different phenotypes in response to varying environmental conditions-is one of the most significant implications of epigenetics in plant biology (West-Eberhard 2003). This plasticity is particularly vital for plants in tropical and subtropical regions, where environmental conditions can shift abruptly and unpredictably (Nicotra et al. 2010). ...
Epigenetic mechanisms, including DNA methylation, histone modifications, and Noncoding RNAs, play a critical role in enabling plants to adapt to environmental changes without altering their DNA sequence. These processes dynamically regulate gene expression in response to diverse stressors, making them essential for plant resilience under changing global conditions. This review synthesises research on tropical and subtropical plants—species naturally exposed to extreme temperatures, salinity, drought, and other stressors—while drawing parallels with similar mechanisms observed in arid and temperate ecosystems. By integrating molecular biology with plant ecology, this synthesis highlights how tropical plants provide valuable models for understanding resilience strategies applicable across broader plant taxa. This review underscores the potential of epigenetic mechanisms to inform conservation strategies and agricultural innovations aimed at bolstering plant resilience in the face of climate change.
... Taken together, our findings may support the flexible-stem model of adaptive radiation, whereby standing variation in the ancestral lineage facilitates plastic responses in new environments, that become genetically assimilated and heritable over time 67 . ...
While the contribution of gene expression (GE) to adaptive evolution is widely accepted, the role of alternative splicing (AS) remains less understood. Here, we investigate AS and GE across three iconic adaptive radiations of African cichlid fishes that evolved within <16,000 to 3.8 million years. We show that AS evolves faster than GE, with both sources of variation being 'fine-tuned' over evolutionary time to become species-specific and clade-specific, respectively. Ecologically divergent species from younger radiations exhibit greater differences in splicing than those from older radiations. Most of these differentially spliced isoforms arose from standing variation, which was also present at low levels in non-radiating species, and increased in frequency during the adaptive radiation process. We identified several novel isoforms of craniofacial remodelling genes that emerged within each lake radiation and were differentially incorporated in the jaws of herbivorous vs. carnivorous species. Our findings indicate that a complex temporal interplay of GE and AS underlies adaptive radiation, with ancestral splice variation enabling rapid ecological diversification at early stages of speciation.
... Whether phenotypic plasticity develops as an organism's general strategy or in reaction to a specific environmental variation determines its ecological and evolutionary implications. Since most plastic features may respond to at least a few distinct environmental stimuli, the response is most likely intermediate (West-Eberhard, 2003). As it is obvious, tubenose goby populations in Slovak waters act as invasive, and thus its position on the list of native species should be reconsidered. ...
The western tubenose goby belongs to the family Gobiidae, which contains the most invasive species responsible for the invasion of waters in Europe as well as in North America. In our study, we analysed life-history traits, morphology, and tested the hypothesis of alternative ontogenies and invasive potential of nine Proterorhinus semilunaris populations coming from melioration channels of Žitný Island (Slovakia). Populations caught in April 2015 were female-dominated and characterized by rapid reproduction, since all samples were already mature. The gonadosomatic index (4.12 to 46.67%), absolute (118–2622), relative number of oocytes (94–4352), and the size of oocytes (0.06 to 1.46 mm) were significantly different compared to all native and non-native areas of occurrence. Samples were characterized with three size groups of oocytes. There was no significant difference in the condition between females and males within each population, thus, they were both in good and/or bad condition. The majority of morphological traits were statistically significant, while more than half can be suggested to have biological importance. Significant differences were related to characters located on the head, fins, and associated with the length or height of the body.
... Phenotypes are products of interactions between the genome and the environment, and variation in the strength and direction of these interactions can influence the phenotypic variation on which selection acts [1][2][3]. As the earliest opportunity for the genotype to interact directly with the environment, an organism's developmental period can range from highly sensitive to insensitive to environmental conditions [4]. Phenotypic sensitivity in response to environmental cues during development is complex, and its adaptive value depends on spatial and temporal variation in the environment, reliability of cues in predicting future environments and the capacity to compensate for and/or reverse developmental responses in later life [5,6]. ...
Increased trait responsiveness to the environment can provide short-term benefits but may induce delayed costs. Anurans (frogs and toads) provide an excellent system to examine phenotypic plasticity and developmental carry-over effects given their ecologically distinct life stages, which have distinct development and growth opportunities. Previous research has predominantly assessed phenotype at metamorphosis rather than within and across life stages. To address this knowledge gap, we reared wood frogs (Rana sylvatica) at two densities and assessed morphology and survival at multiple larval and post-metamorphic timepoints. As expected, the high-density rearing environment depressed early larval size and survivorship and delayed metamorphosis. However, compensatory growth-rate plasticity enabled high-density tadpoles to metamorphose at a similar size as low-density tadpoles. Regardless of rearing density, larval duration was negatively correlated with metamorphic mass for the earliest developers and influenced post-metamorphic survivorship and morphology, but we found evidence for a trade-off between compensatory growth and later-life survival. Our results reinforce the need to sample at multiple timepoints and life stages to understand interactions between phenotype and developmental environment. More broadly, this study contributes to understanding trade-offs and compensation associated with phenotypic plasticity, which will become even more critical given accelerating rates of global environmental change.
... Since the natural environment is highly variable, animals must respond to social and physical cues and express different phenotypes depending on current conditions; a process known as phenotypic plasticity (West-Eberhard 2003). Reproductive behaviour and physiology are thought to be especially plastic in response to changes in the environment, because reproductive decisions can have large fitness consequences. ...
... Canalization underscores the fundamental concept that multiple causes influence a single outcome, thus diminishing the significance of alterations in a single cause. Second, the concept of phenotypic plasticity suggests that an organism's trait can respond to environmental stimuli in diverse manners (see Minelli & Fusco, 2010;Pigliucci, 2001;West-Eberhard, 2003). This implies that the genome encompasses a broad spectrum of potential phenotypes. ...
In the past twenty years, conceptual and technological shifts in the life sciences have unseated the causal primacy of the gene. The picture emerging from ‘postgenomic’ science is one that emphasises multifactorial dependencies between the environment, development, and the genome, and blurs boundaries between biological individuals, and between the body and the environment. Despite the rejection of genetic determinism within postgenomics, forms of determinism nevertheless persist. The environment is often conceptualised in postgenomic research in a narrow and constrained way, affording an outsized causal role to certain environmental factors while neglecting the influence of others. This carries ethical and social implications, including for understandings of race and motherhood. This topical collection interrogates the environmental determinisms developing within postgenomic science, through investigation of their conceptual foundations, histories, and social contexts across a range of postgenomic fields.
... But these are higher order units, and even before we reach these levels, the lower order units had to come together in special ways for the higher order units to emerge. What we now know about our evolutionary history and its complexities we have mostly learned within just a few recent decades (e.g., Quammen, 2018;West-Eberhart, 2003). In phylogeny, for example, multicellular life existed for a substantial proportion of the roughly four-to five-billion-year history of our planet, but for much of that time it consisted of aggregations of cells all of which had similar functions. ...
Our behavioral units include stimulus classes and response classes. Peter Urcuioli's differential‐outcomes research implies they should extend to the third term of the three‐term contingency. Classes of consequences come in several varieties (e.g., conditional reinforcers, tokens), but our vocabulary does not coherently organize them. They are differentiated not only by physical properties such as type, location, and duration but also by the schedule contingencies in which they participate. We consider units ranging from the physical and chemical sciences to those based on the particular history of life on earth. The latter include biology, sociology, linguistics, and our own behavior analysis. Scientific units are typically nested (e.g., atoms within molecules, cells within organs, organisms within species). Comparing our units with those from other taxonomies raises questions about their emergence and evolution and their shared properties across levels of nesting (e.g., species within genus, subclasses within higher order operants, phonemes within words). Emergence necessarily occurs when higher order units have functions that are not shared with their lower order constituents. These nested and multileveled behavior classes challenge single‐level views, such as metaphorical accounts of behavior as a totality contained within a pie, with slices corresponding to behavior classes matched to their outcomes.
... Cada nivel de integración morfológica hace referencia a la covariación entre las partes o rasgos, pero el origen de esta variación, así como el contexto teórico y el enfoque de la investigación difieren de un nivel a otro[Klingenberg, 2009;Villalobos y Benítez, 2020].La integración se produce a nivel organismo de dos maneras: la integración funcional, que describe las interacciones entre los componentes que afectan al rendimiento de un organismo; y la integración del desarrollo, que describe las interacciones entre los componentes durante el crecimiento y el desarrollo[Cheverud, 1996].La integración del desarrollo se produce a través de dos mecanismos: el mecanismo genético y el epigenético. La integración genética ocurre a través de la Pleietropía, es decir cuando un alelo o un gen único, afectan o condición a varios fenotipos diferentes (tejidos); o a través de la vinculación de un gen con otros, dentro de un mismo cromosoma, lo que originará que, una vez seleccionado un gen se lleve consigo los efectos del resto[Cheverud, 1982[Cheverud, y 1996 Klingenber, 2008].Por su parte, la integración epigenética es el resultado de las interacciones físicas mediadas por factores de crecimiento durante la ontogenia y a través de las respuestas conjuntas hacia ambientes similares[Cheverud, 1982[Cheverud, y 1996West- Eberhard, 2003].Cabe señalar que los genes varían inter e intra poblacionalmente, por lo que la integración genética se evidencia en este nivel; lo que conduce a la integración Integración morfológica de la región facial (visual y olfativa) en el Orden Primates: Catarrhini y Platyrrhini Salazar-Rodríguez A.. ...
Knowing that all the bony walls that make up the skull interact with more than one tissue or functional space, the visual and nasal regions were taken in the frontal and basal norms to: 1) test a hypothesis of modularity and functional integration in 10 subfamilies of monkeys, belonging to the infraorders Catarrhini and Platyrhrini. 2) Study the shape variability of both modules proposed for each norm and identify the specific morphological characteristics of each subfamily. 3) To associate each module with different ecological and behavioral characteristics.Modularity and integration are usually quantified statistically in terms of correlation and covariation patterns.
The methodology used in this work was based on multivariate analysis, using geometric morphometry. This method allows the study of shape covariation with underlying geometric factors, and was used to determine the “pure shape” (Shape) of the aforementioned bone structures from landmarks (LM) [Zelditch et al., 2012]. A total of 16 landmarks were positioned for the frontal norm, subdivided into two sets, corresponding to a visual module and a nasal module. While for the basal norm, 18 LMs were chosen, subdivided into two sets, corresponding to a visual and a nasal module.
... For instance, nest flooding and desiccation often lead to egg mortality in birds and non-avian reptiles (e.g., Cassill and Watkins 2022;Elas et al. 2023). Embryos that survive hydric stress may respond through developmental plasticity, leading to phenotypic variation that may impact future survival and fitness (West-Eberhard 2003;Sommer 2020). ...
Extreme climate events, including rapid-onset flash droughts, are increasing with anthropogenic climate change. Flash droughts impact growth and survival of plants, microbes, and invertebrates, yet less is known about their ecological consequences in vertebrates. Although constant water deprivation during vertebrate embryonic development influences a range of offspring traits, the effects of acute, short-term hydric stress are less well-studied, particularly in the context of subsequent survival in the field. In this study, we combined experimental manipulation in the laboratory with a large-scale field experiment to examine the effects of the developmental timing of flash drought in an oviparous vertebrate model. We exposed common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) eggs to simulated flash drought events at different stages of embryonic development and measured the effects on growth and offspring phenotypes. We then conducted an experimental release in the field to evaluate offspring survival during migration from the nest. Flash drought during mid-to-late development decreased egg mass, incubation time, and hatchling body size, while flash drought during late development substantially limited post-hatching survival in the field. This study is among the first to examine juvenile survival effects of flash drought during embryonic development in a vertebrate system. Our results suggest that early-life mortality is likely to increase as flash droughts intensify with climate change. This study contributes to a growing body of research on the ecological consequences of extreme climate events and highlights the importance of considering these events in a developmental context.
... Proponents of the extended evolutionary synthesis (e.g. Lala et al. 2024) have added concepts like niche construction and niche selection (Clark et al. 2019;Odling-Smee, Laland, and Feldman 2003), adaptive phenotypic plasticity (Pfennig et al. 2010;West-Eberhard 2003), and the innovation and transmission of acquired (or innovated) behavioural traits by social learning (Hoppitt and Laland 2013;Jablonka and Lamb 2005) that highlight the role of organism agency in evolutionary outcomes. Sultan, Moczek, and Walsh (2022) summarise how the agency perspective helps to close a number of explanatory gaps left by the MS: 'The initiation of functionally adaptive adjustments or morphological novelties through developmental plasticity are (. . ...
Evolution education seeks to help students develop scientifically adequate explanations of evolutionary adaptations. Those explanations are usually thought to entail only processes that act independently of organism agency, such as genetic mutation, inheritance, and selection. However, the role of organism agency in evolutionary outcomes has been reconsidered by evolutionary biologists in recent decades. We suggest that this agential perspective offers new potential and implications for evolution education. To explore this potential, we developed the assessment tool EvoFlex. It aims to identify students’ ability to flexibly and adequately integrate the role of organism agency across cases of evolutionary adaptation. We implemented this assessment tool with preservice biology teachers, followed by interviews with a subset of respondents. Results indicate that many participants could recognise the scientifically adequate integration of organism agency across cases, despite not being specifically trained in this perspective. However, other students were also prone to disregard any role of organism agency, or they had difficulty thinking about what role it might play in evolution. Our results highlight that the agential perspective has potential in evolution education and point to several future directions in educational research and practice.
... Apart from, or in addition to, the parental environment, the environment personally experienced early in life is another major pathway that can have profound effects on phenotypic development 7,[22][23][24] and, in consequence, on the expression of animal personality later in life. 3,9,10 Several studies have reported long-lasting effects of early-life experiences on consistent behavioral variation among individuals expressed as adults. ...
The idea of individual niche specialization proposes that individuals should diversify in their realized niches to mitigate inter-individual conflict. We tested the hypothesis that parental and early-life experiences drive individual foraging specialization and animal personality formation in plant-inhabiting predatory mites Phytoseiulus persimilis and P. macropilis. Both species are specialized predators of herbivorous spider mites. Adult females and males, which parents had been exposed to either prey eggs or mobile prey, and/or which had themselves experienced either eggs or mobile prey during juvenile development, were tested for their prey life stage preference, and exploration and activity patterns. Parental and/or personal experience of a given prey life stage exerted species- and sex-dependent effects on the adult predators’ mean and individual foraging phenotypes, with parental plus early-life effects being the strongest. Repeatability in activity and exploration was linked to prey life stage preference, pointing at co-variation of personality formation and individualized foraging niches.
... Cognitive abilities shaped by evolutionary processes may improve fitness in relation to average environmental conditions over generations. However, these processes are too slow to match within-generation fluctuations in environmental conditions, which instead require plasticity [23,24]. For example, it has been shown that variation in the social [25][26][27] and physical [28] environments during early-life development can lead to lasting differences in cognitive performance. ...
Foragers can gain knowledge of profitable foraging opportunities either by sampling the environment directly (asocial information) or from congeners (social information). The relative benefit of using social information over asocial information is context-specific, and social information use is expected to be particularly beneficial when the costs of acquiring asocial information are high, for example, due to high risk of starvation if asocial information fails. We investigated the plasticity of social information use in an overwintering population of black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) as they rediscovered an intermittently available food source. Lower temperatures impose energetic costs that increase the risk of starvation in chickadees; therefore, lower temperatures are predicted to favour higher use of social information. To test this prediction, we evaluated chickadees’ reliance on social information during foraging as ambient temperatures ranged from −11.0°C to 5.5°C. We evaluated the relative strength of reliance on social and asocial information using network-based diffusion analysis. We found increased reliance on social information transmission with decreasing temperature. Reversible plasticity of social information use may be an important mechanism to cope with low ambient temperatures, a seasonal challenge experienced by many animals.
... A few exceptional individuals did not follow a simple pattern of inheritance. These exceptional cases suggest the possibility that genetic modifiers or environmental factors may lead to phenocopies (developmental variants that resemble genetic variants) (West-Eberhard 2003) or may have arisen due to experimental error. It is also possible that loci are not fully penetrant, i.e., that they occasionally fail to express the respective phenotype, although the clear offspring morph ratios for most families suggest that this is not often the case. ...
The green-brown polymorphism in Orthoptera is a prominent example of the coexistence of multiple color variants, especially since this polymorphism is shared by many species. The processes that maintain phenotypic polymorphisms depend on the underlying genetic and developmental regulation of body coloration, but these are not well understood for Orthoptera. Here we report on the inheritance of the green-brown polymorphism in the meadow grasshopper Pseudochorthippus parallelus, a species with four discrete color morphs that differ in the distribution of green coloration across the body. We provide the most detailed analysis of the green-brown polymorphism to date using half-sib full-sib breeding and phenotyping of 4,300 offspring. The data strongly support a simple Mendelian control of the presence/absence of green color in different regions of the body, involving four autosomal loci, two of which are genetically linked. However, estimation of population allele and haplotype frequencies using probabilistic simulations shows weak linkage disequilibrium in the population. The contrast between pedigree and population linkage suggests the presence of long-standing allelic variation and thus corroborates that long-term balancing selection is acting. Our study confirms and extends our understanding of inheritance patterns within the Chorthippus clade, providing unprecedented insights into the number and linkage of loci involved. The results have implications for the maintenance of polymorphisms and suggest that fluctuations in the phenotypic composition of populations can be generated by the segregation of genetic variants even in the absence of fluctuating selection.
... Phenotypic plasticity plays a fundamental role in shaping organismal responses to changing environments (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6). Plasticity can help organism to survive and reproduce despite initial adversities. ...
Behavioural plasticity can play a key role in evolution by either facilitating or impeding genetic adaptation. The latter occurs when behaviours mitigate selection pressures that otherwise would target associated traits. Therefore, environments that facilitate the evolution of adaptive behavioural plasticity are predicted to relax natural selection overall, but experimental evidence for this prediction remains scarce. Here, we first demonstrate that adaptive behavioural plasticity in maternal care in the beetle Callosobruchus maculatus is dependent on reliable environmental cues that allow females to reduce larval competition via learning and informed oviposition choices. By comparing survival of larvae of low and high genetic quality in competition with the conspecific C. phaseoli, we show that predictable maternal environments relax selection on deleterious alleles in offspring. We further find that females of low genetic quality generally provide poorer care. However, in the predictable environment, the increased opportunity for learning reduced genetic differences in female care, further relaxing selection against deleterious alleles. We illustrate how the identified link between adaptive behavioural plasticity and the strength of natural selection can have important implications for the build-up of cryptic genetic loads and outcomes of interspecific competition across variable environments that differ in their predictability.
... Anthropogenic global change is projected to drive significant biodiversity losses this century (Urban et al., 2016), highlighting the need to understand the mechanisms and magnitudes of adaptive phenotypic responses to environmental change (Bellard et al., 2012;Lavergne et al., 2010). While organisms do undergo rapid evolutionary adaptation in response to environmental shifts (Hendry & Kinnison, 1999;Hoffmann & Sgrò, 2011;Rudman et al., 2022), environmentally induced phenotypic plasticity represents the most general and impactful mechanism (Ghalambor et al., 2007;Merilä & Hendry, 2014) and allows organisms to adjust phenotypes in response to the conditions they experience (West-Eberhard, 2003). Yet, most mechanisms underlying plastic shifts do not produce heritable change, limiting the long-term fitness benefits of plasticity when environmental fluctuations are common (Fox et al., 2019). ...
Understanding organismal responses to environmental change is a central goal of biology with profound implications for the conservation of biodiversity. Widespread evidence of epigenetic modifications in response to environmental stress, including those inherited across generations, has led to considerable speculation about their role in organismal responses to environmental change. Yet, the magnitude and fitness consequences of epigenetic marks carried beyond maternal inheritance are largely unknown. Here, we tested how transgenerational epigenetic inheritance (TEI) shapes the phenotypic response of Daphnia clones to the environmental stressor Microcystis. We split individuals from each of eight genotypes into exposure and control treatments (P0 generation) and tracked the fitness of their descendants to the F3 generation. We found transgenerational epigenetic exposure to Microcystis led to reduced survival and growth rates and no consistent effect on offspring production. TEI was associated with increases in trait variance, suggesting the potential for heritable bet hedging driven by TEI. Taken together, our results demonstrate that TEI causes substantial—but not adaptive—trait shifts, suggesting transgenerational adaptive plasticity may be rare.
... In general, phenotypes of animals are the outcome of interactions between genetic and environmental factors [3]. More importantly, altered phenotypes in animals are generally associated with higher fitness, which allows the animal to better survive in a rapidly changing environment [4][5][6]; consequently, phenotypic plasticity has become a hot topic in organismal ecology and evolution. ...
Mythimna separata larvae exhibit both solitary and gregarious phases under low and high population density, respectively; furthermore, differences in morphology, behavior and physiology have been observed in the two phases. The integument plays an essential role in the fitness, general metabolism, communication, and survival of insects; however, differences in the integument ultrastructure and gene expression in the solitary and gregarious phases are largely unknown. In this study, the integument ultrastructure of larvae in the solitary and gregarious phases was compared, and transcriptome analysis was conducted to identify which genes were differentially expressed in the two phases. The results showed that the gregarious larvae had thicker integuments and more polygonal particles on the cuticle surface than solitary larvae. Using the Illumina HiSeq™ sequencing platform, 2774 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were generated. Among these, many transcripts were identified with roles in the synthesis of fatty acids; structural components of the integument and the insecticide detoxification were differentially expressed in the integument of the two larval phases. qRT-PCR was used to validate expression patterns of the selected transcripts. This study provides a valuable resource for understanding the molecular basis of behavioral and physiological differences in the two phases of M. separata.
... For example, some individuals in populations of partially migratory birds will migrate a given year in response to environmental cues (Chapman et al. 2011;Buchan et al. 2019). However, some plastic responses occur in response to environmental cues early in development, the effects of which may or may not be reversible (West-Eberhard 2003). This has important implications for conservation breeding, reintroduction, and head starting programs as the environment an individual experiences early in their development could be very different from the envi-ronment they will experience if released into the wild. ...
... Similarly, in Ranitomeya imitator of Northern Peru, Chouteau and Angers (2012) reported that green reticulated phenotypes are localized in the highlands, whereas yellow striped phenotypes are in the lowlands, and both phenotypes are reproductively separated by the limited dispersal capability of the frogs (Chouteau and Angers 2012). In both examples, the differences in aposematic traits across boundaries can be explained because adaptative phenotypes can still emerge in a population with little to no gene flow due to the presence and expression of plastic traits (West-Eberhard 1989, 2003. Although this study did not examine genetic differences, there are clear phenotypic differences in aposematic traits of D. auratus that are separated by an evident geographic barrier. ...
Aposematism is an antipredator strategy in which conspicuous coloration acts as a warning of chemical defenses to potential predators. Evidence suggests that aposematism largely functions under positive frequency-dependent selection, which is thought to maintain uniformity of aposematic signals. Many studies of aposematic organisms have found evidence that color signals and defenses are positively correlated, indicating a quantitatively honest aposematic signal. Dendrobatid poison frogs represent a well-studied group of aposematic organisms that in addition to exhibiting a diversity of color signals also display unique defensive behaviors. Few studies have examined if both behavior and coloration act as quantitative honest signals of alkaloid defenses in poison frogs. We aimed to determine if coloration and behavior are quantitatively honest signals in the green and black poison frog (Dendrobates auratus) among six populations from Costa Rica. We (1) evaluated antipredator displays by using behavioral assays in the field, (2) assessed frog conspicuousness and pattern using digital images, and (3) quantified alkaloid profiles from frog skin secretions. We found that Pacific populations are less conspicuous in coloration, had greater quantities of alkaloids, and more frequently performed body-raising defensive behaviors when compared to Caribbean populations. Our results do not support the hypothesis that aposematic traits in D. auratus are quantitatively honest. Rather, our results suggest that phenotypic differences among populations may represent different phenotypic optima for advertising unprofitability to predators based on local environmental conditions, leading to the diversification of aposematic signals in this species.
... (Baldwin actually proposed theory for the evolution of plasticity that is much more general than this [59].) This effect, and related processes, have often been mentioned as under-appreciated factors in evolution [60,61]. In novel environments that fluctuate with low predictability, however, we show that a transient increase in plasticity (Figure 1(b)) can impose a substantial load on average growth, and thus a barrier to ER. ...
Phenotypic plasticity and its evolution may help evolutionary rescue in a novel and stressful environment, especially if environmental novelty reveals cryptic genetic variation that enables the evolution of increased plasticity. However, the environmental stochasticity ubiquitous in natural systems may alter these predictions because high plasticity may amplify phenotype-environment mismatches. Although previous studies have highlighted this potential detrimental effect of plasticity in stochastic environments, they have not investigated how it affects extinction risk in the context of evolutionary rescue and with evolving plasticity. We investigate this question here by integrating stochastic demography with quantitative genetic theory in a model with simultaneous change in the mean and predictability (temporal autocorrelation) of the environment. We develop an approximate prediction of long-term persistence under the new pattern of environmental fluctuations, and compare it with numerical simulations for short- and long-term extinction risk. We find that reduced predictability increases extinction risk and reduces persistence because it increases stochastic load during rescue. This understanding of how stochastic demography, phenotypic plasticity, and evolution interact when evolution acts on cryptic genetic variation revealed in a novel environment can inform expectations for invasions, extinctions, or the emergence of chemical resistance in pests.
... Another piece of this puzzle comes from phenotypic plasticity, a well-known phenomenon in which a genotype is able to express different phenotypes in different environments (174). Notice the difference from phenotypic heterogeneity as discussed above: phenotypic plasticity is only unveiled when an environmental cue appears. ...
Evolutionary dynamics is often viewed as a subtle process of change accumulation that causes a divergence among organisms and their genomes. However, this interpretation is an inheritance of a gradualistic view that has been challenged at the macroevolutionary, ecological, and molecular level. Actually, when the complex architecture of genotype spaces is taken into account, the evolutionary dynamics of molecular populations becomes intrinsically non-uniform, sharing deep qualitative and quantitative similarities with slowly driven physical systems: non-linear responses analogous to critical transitions, sudden state changes, or hysteresis, among others. Furthermore, the phenotypic plasticity inherent to genotypes transforms classical fitness landscapes into multiscapes where adaptation in response to an environmental change may be very fast. The quantitative nature of adaptive molecular processes is deeply dependent on a networks-of-networks multilayered structure of the map from genotype to function that we begin to unveil.
... Describing some variable response as a form of phenotypic plasticity is to acknowledge that it is a change in phenotype in response to an environmental or internal cue without any accompanying genetic change. Although there have been various suggestions that such responses can have evolutionary impacts on the subsequent genetic fixation of those phenotypes (West-Eberhard, 2003;Bateson and Gluckman, 2011;Levis and Pfennig, 2016), that this is the case is above and beyond describing some response as an instance of phenotypic plasticity. The notion of niche construction, on the other hand, was formulated in the context of evolutionary theory. ...
Physarum polycephalum, also known more colloquially as 'the blob', 'acellular slime mould', or just 'slime mould', is a unicellular multinucleate protist that has continued to attract the interest of biologists over the past century because of its complex life cycle, unique physiology, morphology, and behaviour. More recently, attention has shifted to Physarum as a model organism for investigating putative cognitive capacities such as decision making, learning, and memory in organisms without nervous systems. The aim of this Element is to illustrate how Physarum can be used as a valuable tool for approaching various topics in the philosophy of biology. Physarum and its behaviour not only pose a challenge to some of the received views of biological processes but also, I shall argue, provide an opportunity to clarify and appropriately sharpen the concepts underlying such received views.
... Following this, specific direct/indirect trans regulatory regions-indicated by arrows (2) influence transcriptional regulation, following by the epigenome, for example, by DNA methylation, histone modification and non-coding RNAs. (West-Eberhard 2003). However, this hypothesis remains controversial (Via et al. 1995;Wray et al. 2014). ...
When a species invades a novel environment, it must bridge the environment–phenotype mismatch in its new range to persist. Contemporary invasion biology research has focused on the role that trait variation and adaptation, and their underlying genomic factors, play in a species' adaptive potential, and thus facilitating invasion. Empirical studies have provided valuable insights into phenotypes that persist and arise in novel environments, coupled with ‘omics tools that further the understanding of the contributions of genomic architecture in species establishment. Particularly, the use of transcriptomics to explore the role of plasticity in the initial stages of an invasion is growing. Here, we assess the role of various mechanisms relating to regulation and functional adaptation (often measured via the transcriptome) that support trait‐specific plasticity in invasive species, allowing phenotypic variability without directly altering genomic diversity. First, we present a comprehensive review of the studies utilising transcriptomics in invasion biology. Second, we collate the evidence for and against the role of a range of regulatory processes in contributing to invasive species plasticity. Finally, we pose open questions in invasion biology where the use of transcriptome data may be valuable, as well as discuss the methodological limitations.
... "Plasticity" is defined as the ability of one and the same genotype to produce different types of behavior, physiology, or shape, in response to different conditions in its environment. The individual's responses to the environmental circumstances may be active or passive, lasting or sporadic, reversible or irrevocable, adaptive or nonadaptive (West-Eberhard 2003). Furthermore, the range of plastic responses to new conditions may be narrow and predictable or wide and open-ended. ...
Empirical and philosophical perspectives on scaffolding that highlight the role of temporal and temporary resources in development across concepts of culture, cognition, and evolution.
"Scaffolding" is a concept that is becoming widely used across disciplines. This book investigates common threads in diverse applications of scaffolding, including theoretical biology, cognitive science, social theory, science and technology studies, and human development. Despite its widespread use, the concept of scaffolding is often given short shrift; the contributors to this volume, from a range of disciplines, offer a more fully developed analysis of scaffolding that highlights the role of temporal and temporary resources in development, broadly conceived, across concepts of culture, cognition, and evolution.
The book emphasizes reproduction, repeated assembly, and entrenchment of heterogeneous relations, parts, and processes as a complement to neo-Darwinism in the developmentalist tradition of conceptualizing evolutionary change. After describing an integration of theoretical perspectives that can accommodate different levels of analysis and connect various methodologies, the book discusses multilevel organization; differences (and reciprocality) between individuals and institutions as units of analysis; and perspectives on development that span brains, careers, corporations, and cultural cycles.
Contributors Colin Allen, Linnda R. Caporael, James Evans, Elihu M. Gerson, Simona Ginsburg, James R. Griesemer, Christophe Heintz, Eva Jablonka, Sanjay Joshi, Shu-Chen Li, Pamela Lyon, Sergio F. Martinez, Christopher J. May, Johann Peter Murmann, Stuart A. Newman, Jeffrey C. Schank, Iddo Tavory, Georg Theiner, Barbara Hoeberg Wimsatt, William C. Wimsatt
... By developing a comparative paradigm that combines behavioral and neural approaches to investigate the origin of new behaviors, our results revealed how the ancestral nervous system potentiates such changes and shapes the trajectories of behavioral evolution. The themes emerging from this study, such as co-option, ancestral potential, and the plasticity of prototypic phenotypes, converge with Evo-Devo concepts that typically focus on morphological evolution 77,[83][84][85][86] . For example, analogous to the origin of wing spreading, the repeated evolution of "supersoldiers" in the ant genus Pheidole occurred via the actualization of an ancestral developmental potential, where large supersoldier-like anomalies are occasionally found in nature and can be artificially induced by hormonal manipulation in species lacking a supersoldier caste 87 . ...
Courtship interactions are remarkably diverse in form and complexity among species. How neural circuits evolve to encode new behaviors that are functionally integrated into these dynamic social interactions is unknown. Here we report a recently originated female sexual behavior in the island endemic Drosophila species D. santomea, where females signal receptivity to male courtship songs by spreading their wings, which in turn promotes prolonged songs in courting males. Copulation success depends on this female signal and correlates with males’ ability to adjust his singing in such a social feedback loop. Functional comparison of sexual circuitry across species suggests that a pair of descending neurons, which integrates male song stimuli and female internal state to control a conserved female abdominal behavior, drives wing spreading in D. santomea. This co-option occurred through the refinement of a pre-existing, plastic circuit that can be optogenetically activated in an outgroup species. Combined, our results show that the ancestral potential of a socially-tuned key circuit node to engage the wing motor circuit facilitates the expression of a new female behavior in appropriate sensory and motivational contexts. More broadly, our work provides insights into the evolution of social behaviors, particularly female behaviors, and the underlying neural mechanisms.
... The effect size of early life adversity on mortality risk was larger in the first 4 years of life than adulthood, but risks were also elevated in adulthood. Strong effects on early life mortality risk are consistent with the notion of an overall greater vulnerability during development [94,95]. Given the fitness costs of dying prior to reproduction, our results demonstrate that the effects of early life adversity prior to maturity have major fitness ramifications and the full consequences of early life adversity are likely to be larger than predicted in previous studies focused on adult fitness. ...
Exposure to early life adversity is linked to detrimental fitness outcomes across taxa. Owing to the challenges of collecting longitudinal data, direct evidence for long-term fitness effects of early life adversity from long-lived species remains relatively scarce. Here, we test the effects of early life adversity on male and female longevity in a free-ranging population of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico. We leveraged six decades of data to quantify the relative importance of 10 forms of early life adversity for 6599 macaques. Individuals that experienced more early life adversity died earlier than those that experienced less adversity. Mortality risk was highest during early life, defined as birth to 4 years old, but heightened mortality risk was also present in macaques that survived to adulthood. Females and males were affected differently by some forms of adversity, and these differences might be driven by varying energetic demands and dispersal patterns. Our results show that the fitness consequences of early life adversity are not uniform across individuals but vary as a function of the type of adversity, timing and social context, and thus contribute to our limited but growing understanding of the evolution of early life sensitivities.
This article is part of the discussion meeting issue ‘Understanding age and society using natural populations’
Phenotypic polymorphisms have fascinated evolutionary biologists since the field’s inception, providing easily observable and quantifiable variation amenable to both empirical and theoretical study. However, a clear method for developing alternative hypotheses for the adaptive processes by which multiple morphs are maintained remains elusive. Here we review hypotheses for the maintenance of polymorphisms and propose a framework in which polymorphisms can be described by (i) a type of balancing selection and (ii) the ecological and social context through which balancing selection acts. We argue that a complete hypothesis for the maintenance of polymorphism should describe both variables, offering a simple method for generating testable alternatives. To demonstrate this, we explore the case of female-limited polymorphism, a class of polymorphisms with diverse explanations, yet little unifying theory across taxa. We show that, in most cases, social competition drives the maintenance of female-limited polymorphism. Applying this framework to both within-sex and species-wide polymorphism reveals distinctions and commonalities across disparate taxa, provides a clear structure for developing hypotheses, and reveals new paths for future research in the adaptive maintenance of polymorphism.
Bringing together an interdisciplinary team of scholars, this book explores three interconnected aspects of syntax - its origins and evolution, its acquisition by children, and its role in languages' ongoing development and change. These three distinct areas were linked through Bickerton's most provocative work 'Language Bioprogram Hypothesis' (LBH). This book highlights the discussions on syntax that have emerged over the years as a result of the LBH model. Each chapter include a discussion of Bickerton's work, and a special focus is placed on Creole languages, which provide unique case studies for the study of the evolution, acquisition and development of languages. The book also discusses the relevance of LBH for other natural languages, including sign languages. Shedding light on the relevance of syntax in language, it is essential reading for researchers and students in a wide range of linguistic disciplines.
Phenotypic plasticity, the ability of organisms to change their phenotype depending on external stimuli, enables their survival in fluctuating environments. An extreme example is polyphenism, in which a single genotype produces discrete phenotypes in response to external cues. However, under persistent environmental conditions, natural selection would favor reduced plasticity. This study focused on the loss of reproductive polyphenism and revealed the underlying mechanism in the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum. Although most populations exhibit reproductive polyphenism, known as cyclical parthenogenesis, with a seasonal shift between parthenogenesis and sexual reproduction, some exhibit obligate parthenogenesis. To investigate the potential role of changes in the environmental sensitivity of the juvenile hormone (JH) pathway during this evolutionary shift, we analyzed the expression of genes involved in JH synthesis and degradation. We found that five of seven JH-related genes exhibited photoperiodic responses in one cyclical-parthenogenetic strain, whereas none of them responded to photoperiod in the two obligate-parthenogenetic strains. Notably, CYP15A and JHEH genes, which are involved in the final step of JH synthesis and in the initiation of JH degradation, respectively, showed strong photoperiodic responses in the cyclical-parthenogenetic strain but showed no responses in the obligate-parthenogenetic strains. Acetone treatment induces male production in obligate-parthenogenetic strains, suggesting that the developmental pathway for male production remains functional in these strains. These results suggest that the loss of the photoperiodic response in both JH synthesis and degradation pathways is a key mechanism underlying the elimination of the sexual phase, resulting in the loss of reproductive polyphenism in aphids.
Tropical reef fish are especially sensitive to ocean warming, and the impacts of warming on reproduction may influence the persistence of future populations. The capacity of phenotypes to match altered conditions depends on the nature of environmental change, such as timing, duration, and variability. However, little is known about how these characteristics alter the plasticity of reproduction. The present study investigated how the timing of warming (+1.5°C above present-day temperature) through early development (hatching-1.5 yr) and/or post-maturation (1.5-3 yr) impacted reproduction and offspring quality in a tropical damselfish ( Acanthochromis polyacanthus ). Warming at both life stages affected adult morphometrics and reproduction differently, but offspring quality was not impacted by parental thermal experience. Specifically, warming during development resulted in smaller adults (shorter standard lengths) with significantly reduced fecundity, while warming after maturation led to lighter adults for a given length that produced smaller eggs. This study also highlighted that fish may be able to partially restore their reproductive output in elevated temperatures with extended experience of warming after maturation. However, negative impacts from developing in elevated temperatures remained even in their second breeding season when fish were 3 yr old. Such knowledge of how aspects of temperature change influence environmental sensitivity and the capacity for plasticity is important to understand the drivers of species’ resilience to change.
La etapa de crecimiento posnatal es clave en el ciclo de vida de los individuos ya que la variación en las trayectorias de crecimiento y los fenotipos juveniles resultantes pueden afectar directamente a las habilidades competitivas, la supervivencia y el éxito de apareamiento futuro, lo que se refleja en última instancia en términos de eficacia biológica. En este sentido, a pesar de que diferentes aspectos del crecimiento corporal han sido estudiados en aves en general y aves marinas en particular, los estudios realizados en aves marinas sudamericanas son escasos. Aquí, presento una síntesis de causas próximas, últimas, e implicancias de la variación en el crecimiento corporal en aves marinas, abordando además la utilidad de algunas herramientas estadísticas para su estudio. Asimismo, planteo una revisión bibliográfica de la información existente para la región, identificando aspectos de interés a ser considerados en futuros estudios.
The explosion of next-generation sequencing technologies has allowed researchers to move from studying single genes, to thousands of genes, and thereby to also consider the relationships within gene networks. Like others, we are interested in understanding how developmental and evolutionary forces shape the expression of individual genes, as well as the interactions among genes. To this end, we characterized the effects of genetic background and developmental environment on brain gene coexpression in two parallel, independent evolutionary lineages of Trinidadian guppies ( Poecilia reticulata ). We asked whether connectivity patterns among genes differed based on genetic background and rearing environment, and whether a gene’s connectivity predicted its propensity for expression divergence. In pursuing these questions, we confronted the central challenge that standard approaches fail to control the Type I error and/or have low power in the presence of high dimensionality (i.e., large number of genes) and small sample size, as in many gene expression studies. Using our data as a case study, we detail central challenges, discuss sample size guidelines, and provide rigorous statistical approaches for exploring coexpression differences with small sample sizes. Using these approaches, we find evidence that coexpression relationships differ based on both genetic background and rearing environment. We report greater expression divergence in less connected genes and suggest this pattern may arise and be reinforced by selection.
The peacock blenny Salaria pavo is notorious for its extreme male sexual polymorphism, with large males defending nests and younger reproductive males mimicking the appearance and behavior of females to parasitically fertilize eggs. The lack of a reference genome has, to date, limited the understanding of the genetic basis of the species phenotypic plasticity. Here, we present the first reference genome assembly of the peacock blenny using PacBio HiFi long-reads and Hi-C sequencing data. The final assembly of the S. pavo genome spanned 735.90 Mbp, with a contig N50 of 3.69 Mbp and a scaffold N50 of 31.87 Mbp. A total of 98.77% of the assembly was anchored to 24 chromosomes. In total, 24,008 protein-coding genes were annotated, and 99.0% of BUSCO genes were fully represented. Comparative analyses with closely related species showed that 86.2% of these genes were assigned to orthogroups. This high-quality genome of S. pavo will be a valuable resource for future research on this species’ reproductive plasticity and evolutionary history.
In this paper, I will conduct three interrelated analyses. First, I will develop an analysis of various concepts in the history of biology that used to refer to individual-level phenomena but were then reinterpreted by the Modern Synthesis in terms of populations. Second, a similar situation can be found in contemporary evolutionary theory. While different approaches reflect on the causal role of developing organisms in evolution, proponents of the Modern Synthesis refrain from any substantial change by reinterpreting and explaining individual-level phenomena from a population perspective. Finally, I will approach these historical and contemporary debates by arguing for the statistical reading of natural selection, which holds that explanations by natural selection are statistical. My main conclusion is that the historical conceptual reinterpretations belong to a new explanatory strategy developed by the Modern Synthesis based on population thinking. Adopting the statistical point of view has three advantages for the issues discussed in this paper. First, understanding historical conceptual change as part of an explanatory shift fits with the emergence of population biology as a discipline that employs statistical methods. Second, concerning current debates in evolutionary biology, the statisticalist reading can validate the goal of both sides of the dispute. It ascribes an invaluable role to the population statistical explanation of the MS and also commends the study of developmental and organismal causes of adaptive evolution. Finally, the division of explanatory roles in evolutionary biology, embarrassed by statisticalism, can be related to the different interpretations that important biological concepts have undergone throughout history and contemporary biology, i.e., that the division of explanatory roles allows for a division of conceptual interpretations.
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