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Developmental plasticity
About: Developmental plasticity is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1721 publications have been published within this topic receiving 103438 citations.
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TL;DR: This work focuses on recent advances and examples from morphological traits in animals to provide a broad overview of the evolution of developmental plasticity, as well as its relevance to adaptive evolution.
Abstract: Aside from its selective role in filtering inter-individual variation during evolution by natural selection, the environment also plays an instructive role in producing variation during development. External environmental cues can influence developmental rates and/or trajectories and lead to the production of distinct phenotypes from the same genotype. This can result in a better match between adult phenotype and selective environment and thus represents a potential solution to problems posed by environmental fluctuation. The phenomenon is called adaptive developmental plasticity. The study of developmental plasticity integrates different disciplines (notably ecology and developmental biology) and analyses at all levels of biological organization, from the molecular regulation of changes in organismal development to variation in phenotypes and fitness in natural populations. Here, we focus on recent advances and examples from morphological traits in animals to provide a broad overview covering (i) the evolution of developmental plasticity, as well as its relevance to adaptive evolution, (ii) the ecological significance of alternative environmentally induced phenotypes, and the way the external environment can affect development to produce them, (iii) the molecular mechanisms underlying developmental plasticity, with emphasis on the contribution of genetic, physiological and epigenetic factors, and (iv) current challenges and trends, including the relevance of the environmental sensitivity of development to studies in ecological developmental biology, biomedicine and conservation biology.
327 citations
TL;DR: The developmental mechanisms by which the environment may alter the phenotype during development are reviewed and the relationship between developmental plasticity and evolutionary plasticity are examined.
Abstract: The developmental mechanisms by which the environment may alter the phenotype during development are reviewed. Developmental plasticity may be of two forms: developmental conversion or phenotypic modulation. In developmental conversion, organisms use specific environmental cues to activate alternative genetic programs controlling development. These alternative programs may either lead to alternative morphs, or may lead to the decision to activate a developmental arrest. In phenotypic modulation, nonspecific phenotypic variation results from environmental influences on rates or degrees of expression of the developmental program, but the genetic programs controlling development are not altered. Modulation, which is not necessarily adaptive, is probably the common form of environmentally induced phenotypic variation in higher organisms, and adaptiveness of phenotypic plasticity therefore cannot be assumed unless specific genetic mechanisms can be demonstrated. The genetic mechanisms by which developmental plasticity may evolve are reviewed, and the relationship between developmental plasticity and evolutionary plasticity are examined.
326 citations
TL;DR: The plasticity of the developmental response to water volume reduction in the western spadefoot toad, Scaphiopus hammondii, is analyzed and the environmental cue(s) that may signal a desiccating larval habitat are identified.
Abstract: Amphibians exhibit extreme plasticity in the timing of metamorphosis, and several species have been shown to respond to water availability, accelerating metamorphosis when their ponds dry. In this study we analyzed the plasticity of the developmental response to water volume reduction in the western spadefoot toad, Scaphiopus hammondii. Also, we attempted to identify the environmental cue(s) that may signal a desiccating larval habitat. We spawned adults in the laboratory and raised tadpoles in aquaria in a controlled environmental chamber. Water levels of aquaria were gradually reduced by removing water at the rate of 0.5–1 L/d; water in control aquaria was similarly disturbed but not removed. Tadpoles subjected to water volume reduction showed significant acceleration of metamorphosis. The developmental acceleration depended on the rate of reduction of the water level; i.e., tadpoles exhibited a continuum of response. This developmental response did not result from thermal differences between treatments...
326 citations
TL;DR: It is shown how the concepts of canalizing and decanalizing selection, which result, respectively, in a buffered or unbuffered developmental system, can be responsible for the maintenance of specific levels of intrapopulational variation.
Abstract: It has been suggested that the gulf between ecological and genetic theories of life history evolution can be reconciled by renewed emphasis on studies of mechanisms observed at the whole organism level. These are recognized as developmental plasticity, canalization, and constraint (Stearns 1982). Here we extend a new approach to this problem (Cooper and Kaplan 1982) by focusing on the evolution of developmental mechanisms that generate intrapopulational variation in reproductive characteristics.
325 citations
TL;DR: Recent progress in understanding the mechanisms that restrict the action of BDNF to active synapses and by which BDNF mediates chemical and structural modifications of individual synapses are discussed, placing an emphasis on the role of local protein synthesis in these processes.
318 citations