What is ecological speciation

Summary 1. Our study addresses the role of non-genetic and genetic inheritance in shaping the adaptive potential of populations under a warming ocean scenario. We used a combined experimental approach [transgenerational plasticity (TGP) and quantitative genetics] to partition the relative contribution of maternal vs. paternal (additive genetic) effects to offspring body size (a key component of fitness), and investigated a potential physiological mechanism (mitochondrial respiration capacities) underlying whole-organism growth/size responses. 2. In very early stages of growth (up to 30 days), offspring body size of marine sticklebacks benefited from maternal TGP: offspring of mothers acclimated to 17 °C were larger when reared at 17 °C, and offspring of mothers acclimated to 21 °C were larger when reared at 21 °C. The benefits of maternal TGP on body size were stronger and persisted longer (up to 60 days) for offspring reared in the warmer (21 °C) environment, suggesting that maternal effects will be highly relevant for climate change scenarios in this system. 3. Mitochondrial respiration capacities measured on mature offspring (F1 adults) matched the pattern of TGP for juvenile body size, providing an intuitive mechanistic basis for the maternal acclimation persisting into adulthood. Size differences between temperatures seen at early growth stages remained in the F1 adults, linking offspring body size to maternal inheritance of mitochondria. 4. Lower maternal variance components in the warmer environment were mostly driven by mothers acclimated to ambient (colder) conditions, further supporting our tenet that maternal effects were stronger at elevated temperature. Importantly, all parent–offspring temperature combination groups showed genotype 9 environment (G 9 E) interactions, suggesting that reaction norms have the potential to evolve. 5. To summarize, TGP and G 9 E interactions work in concert to mediate impacts of ocean warming on metabolic capacity and early growth of marine sticklebacks. TGP can buffer short-term detrimental effects of climate warming and may buy time for genetic adaptation to catch up, therefore markedly contributing to the evolutionary potential and persistence of populations under climate change.

Transgenerational plasticity in marine sticklebacks: maternal effects mediate impacts of a warming ocean

Being old enough to remember the era of vinyl record albums, in which record companies often repackaged the same songs in reissues which usually differed only in the album cover, I was transported back to those days by this book Not because Peter Grant has suddenly become a country-and-western singer, but because Princeton University Press has copied the recording industry's tactics of the 1970s by reissuing his 1986 classic book on Darwin's finches, complete with new cover and the equivalent of 'liner' notes in a foreward by Jonathan Weiner

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Ecology and Evolution of Darwin’s Finches. Peter R. Grant. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. 2000. pp. 492. Price £14.50, paperback. ISBN 0 691 04866 5.

Extended Heredity: A New Understanding of Inheritance and Evolution

The generation of variation is paramount for the action of natural selection. Although biologists are now moving beyond the idea that random mutation provides the sole source of variation for adaptive evolution, we still assume that variation occurs randomly. In this review, we discuss an alternative view for how phenotypic plasticity, which has become well accepted as a source of phenotypic variation within evolutionary biology, can generate nonrandom variation. Although phenotypic plasticity is often defined as a property of a genotype, we argue that it needs to be considered more explicitly as a property of developmental systems involving more than the genotype. We provide examples of where plasticity could be initiating developmental bias, either through direct active responses to similar stimuli across populations or as the result of programmed variation within developmental systems. Such biased variation can echo past adaptations that reflect the evolutionary history of a lineage but can also serve to initiate evolution when environments change. Such adaptive programs can remain latent for millions of years and allow development to harbor an array of complex adaptations that can initiate new bouts of evolution. Specifically, we address how ideas such as the flexible stem hypothesis and cryptic genetic variation overlap, how modularity among traits can direct the outcomes of plasticity, and how the structure of developmental signaling pathways is limited to a few outcomes. We highlight key questions throughout and conclude by providing suggestions for future research that can address how plasticity initiates and harbors developmental bias.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ede.12304

Does phenotypic plasticity initiate developmental bias

A major goal of evolutionary science is to understand how biological diversity is generated and altered. Despite considerable advances, we still have limited insight into how phenotypic variation a ...

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/brv.12534

Camille A‐L. Leblanc

Papers

A way forward with eco evo devo: an extended theory of resource polymorphism with postglacial fishes as model systems