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Plastic responses to novel environments are biased towards phenotype dimensions with high additive genetic variation

Noble, Daniel W.A. LU ; Radersma, Reinder LU and Uller, Tobias LU (2019) In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 116(27). p.13452-13461
Abstract

Environmentally induced phenotypes have been proposed to initiate and bias adaptive evolutionary change toward particular directions. The potential for this to happen depends in part on how well plastic responses are aligned with the additive genetic variance and covariance in traits. Using meta-analysis, we demonstrate that plastic responses to novel environments tend to occur along phenotype dimensions that harbor substantial amounts of additive genetic variation. This suggests that selection for or against environmentally induced phenotypes typically will be effective. One interpretation of the alignment between the direction of plasticity and the main axis of additive genetic variation is that developmental systems tend to respond... (More)

Environmentally induced phenotypes have been proposed to initiate and bias adaptive evolutionary change toward particular directions. The potential for this to happen depends in part on how well plastic responses are aligned with the additive genetic variance and covariance in traits. Using meta-analysis, we demonstrate that plastic responses to novel environments tend to occur along phenotype dimensions that harbor substantial amounts of additive genetic variation. This suggests that selection for or against environmentally induced phenotypes typically will be effective. One interpretation of the alignment between the direction of plasticity and the main axis of additive genetic variation is that developmental systems tend to respond to environmental novelty as they do to genetic mutation. This makes it challenging to distinguish if the direction of evolution is biased by plasticity or genetic “constraint.” Our results therefore highlight a need for new theoretical and empirical approaches to address the role of plasticity in evolution.

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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Cryptic genetic, Evolvability, Phenotypic accommodation, Phenotypic plasticity, Variation
in
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
volume
116
issue
27
pages
10 pages
publisher
National Academy of Sciences
external identifiers
  • scopus:85068256480
  • pmid:31217289
ISSN
0027-8424
DOI
10.1073/pnas.1821066116
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
30e0b4a0-f7fd-412f-b73a-f1ccdd46102a
date added to LUP
2019-07-09 14:29:09
date last changed
2024-06-25 23:16:58
@article{30e0b4a0-f7fd-412f-b73a-f1ccdd46102a,
  abstract     = {{<p>Environmentally induced phenotypes have been proposed to initiate and bias adaptive evolutionary change toward particular directions. The potential for this to happen depends in part on how well plastic responses are aligned with the additive genetic variance and covariance in traits. Using meta-analysis, we demonstrate that plastic responses to novel environments tend to occur along phenotype dimensions that harbor substantial amounts of additive genetic variation. This suggests that selection for or against environmentally induced phenotypes typically will be effective. One interpretation of the alignment between the direction of plasticity and the main axis of additive genetic variation is that developmental systems tend to respond to environmental novelty as they do to genetic mutation. This makes it challenging to distinguish if the direction of evolution is biased by plasticity or genetic “constraint.” Our results therefore highlight a need for new theoretical and empirical approaches to address the role of plasticity in evolution.</p>}},
  author       = {{Noble, Daniel W.A. and Radersma, Reinder and Uller, Tobias}},
  issn         = {{0027-8424}},
  keywords     = {{Cryptic genetic; Evolvability; Phenotypic accommodation; Phenotypic plasticity; Variation}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{27}},
  pages        = {{13452--13461}},
  publisher    = {{National Academy of Sciences}},
  series       = {{Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America}},
  title        = {{Plastic responses to novel environments are biased towards phenotype dimensions with high additive genetic variation}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1821066116}},
  doi          = {{10.1073/pnas.1821066116}},
  volume       = {{116}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}