Premium
Developmental noise and ecological opportunity across space can release constraints on the evolution of plasticity
Author(s) -
Draghi Jeremy
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
evolution and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.651
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1525-142X
pISSN - 1520-541X
DOI - 10.1111/ede.12305
Subject(s) - plasticity , biology , phenotypic plasticity , context (archaeology) , developmental plasticity , evolutionary biology , generalist and specialist species , adaptation (eye) , imperfect , process (computing) , adaptive evolution , evolutionary developmental biology , ecology , computer science , paleontology , neuroscience , habitat , genetics , linguistics , philosophy , physics , gene , operating system , thermodynamics
Phenotypic plasticity is a potentially definitive solution to environment heterogeneity, driving biologists to understand why it is not ubiquitous in nature. While costs and constraints may limit the success of plasticity, we are still far from a complete theory of when these limitations actually proscribe adaptive plasticity. Here I use a simple model of plasticity incorporating developmental noise to explore the competitive and evolutionary relationships of specialist and generalist genotypes spreading across a heterogeneous landscape. Results show that plasticity can arise in the context of specialism, preadapting genotypes to later evolve toward plastic generalism. Developmental noise helps a mutant with imperfect plasticity successfully compete against its ancestor, providing an evolutionary path by which subsequent mutations can refine plasticity toward its optimum. These results address how the complex selection pressures across a heterogeneous environment can help evolution find paths around constraints arising from developmental mechanisms.