Developmental plasticity

About: Developmental plasticity is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1721 publications have been published within this topic receiving 103438 citations.

Reciprocal Interaction of Sleep and Synaptic Plasticity

Abstract: Synaptic plasticity underlying learning and memory has been proposed, on the basis of several experimental approaches, to be intimately related with sleep: 1) The idea that sleep contributes to stabilization of acquired memory arises from numerous studies depriving subjects or animals of sleep. 2) Evidence from developing technologies supports "offline" reprocessing of recent experiences during sleep. 3) Recent analysis of the thalamocortical system establishes the reciprocal observation that sleep itself is a plastic process affected by waking experience. This overview synthesizes these converging perspectives across a variety of brain regions and species. We propose the developing visual pathway as a fruitful model for comprehensive understanding of sleep and synaptic plasticity.

Evolutionarily divergent thermal sensitivity of germline development and fertility in hermaphroditic Caenorhabditis nematodes.

Abstract: Thermal developmental plasticity represents a key organismal adaptation to maintain reproductive capacity in contrasting and fluctuating temperature niches. Although extensively studied, research on thermal plasticity has mainly focused on phenotypic outcomes, such as adult life history, rather than directly measuring plasticity of underlying developmental processes. How thermal plasticity of developmental phenotypes maps into plasticity of resulting final phenotypes, and how such mapping relationships evolve, thus remain poorly understood. Here we address these questions by quantifying thermal plasticity of Caenorhabditis hermaphrodite germline development. We integrate measurements of germline development and fertility at the upper thermal range in isolates of C. briggsae, C. elegans, and C. tropicalis. First, we compare intra- and interspecific variation in thermal germline plasticity with plasticity in reproductive output. Second, we ask whether the developmental errors leading to fertility break-down at upper thermal limits are evolutionarily conserved. We find that temperature variation modulates spermatogenesis, oogenesis and germ cell progenitor pools, yet the thermal sensitivity of these processes varies among isolates and species, consistent with evolutionary variation in upper thermal limits of hermaphrodite fertility. Although defective sperm function is a major contributor to heat-induced fertility break-down, high temperature also significantly perturbs oogenesis, germline integrity, and mitosis-meiosis progression. Remarkably, the occurrence and frequency of specific errors are strongly species- and genotype-dependent, indicative of evolutionary divergence in thermal sensitivity of distinct processes in germline development. Therefore, the Caenorhabditis reproductive system displays complex genotype-by-temperature interactions at the developmental level, which may remain masked when studying thermal plasticity exclusively at the life history level.

Alcohol and the Developing Brain: Why Neurons Die and How Survivors Change.

Abstract: The consequences of alcohol drinking during pregnancy are dramatic and usually referred to as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). This condition is one of the main causes of intellectual disability in Western countries. The immature fetal brain exposed to ethanol undergoes massive neuron death. However, the same mechanisms leading to cell death can also be responsible for changes of developmental plasticity. As a consequence of such a maladaptive plasticity, the functional damage to central nervous system structures is amplified and leads to permanent sequelae. Here we review the literature dealing with experimental FASD, focusing on the alterations of the cerebral cortex. We propose that the reciprocal interaction between cell death and maladaptive plasticity represents the main pathogenetic mechanism of the alcohol-induced damage to the developing brain.

Consequences of the inherent developmental plasticity of organ and tissue relations

Abstract: Varied cell lineages, random elements of stomata and vein patterns, and unpredictable details of branch relations are all examples of evidence for an inherent plasticity of development that need not be dependent on environmental cues Such plastic form could be generated by a combination of programs and ‘Developmental Selection’, a principle that resembles Darwinian processes, albeit without genetic differences Both internal and environmental cues could act by modifying the outcome of this selection Adaptive responses to environmental heterogeneity cannot be strictly separated from the underlying plasticity of unperturbed development The proximal mechanisms and the genetic specification of the outcome of developmental selection require an excess developmental potential, one that includes many unused alternatives The choice between these alternatives depends on preset hierarchies, but this choice can be perturbed according to the environment as well as the internal conditions, including the ones due to random developmental mistakes Form is specified as a balance between signals of the various components of the organism, without a strict determination of their precise numbers and locations This requires that developing tissues and organs ‘inform’ the plant about their states and respond according to the signals and substrates they receive Further, the varied responses must be integrated so as to form and maintain an organized, functional whole Unexpected and unrecognized traits of known hormones, and especially auxin, suggest concrete knowledge about such mechanisms Plasticity that is based on developmental selection allows plants in a community to adjust their individual forms to those of their close neighbors It could have important evolutionary consequences: mutations that have favorable effects on one process could be accommodated by plastic adjustments of other parts of the functional plant On the other hand, genetic information required only for unusual conditions could be expected to deteriorate because it is not in constant use, and in fact plasticity that requires such is at best rare At the conceptual level, plasticity calls for integrating reductionist and organismal thinking A greater challenge is for the concurrent consideration of both proximal and Darwinian mechanisms