Developmental plasticity

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

Complex interactions between local adaptation, phenotypic plasticity and sex affect vulnerability to warming in a widespread marine copepod

Abstract: Predicting the response of populations to climate change requires an understanding of how various factors affect thermal performance. Genetic differentiation is well known to affect thermal performance, but the effects of sex and developmental phenotypic plasticity often go uncharacterized. We used common garden experiments to test for effects of local adaptation, developmental phenotypic plasticity and individual sex on thermal performance of the ubiquitous copepod, Acartia tonsa (Calanoida, Crustacea) from two populations strongly differing in thermal regimes (Florida and Connecticut, USA). Females had higher thermal tolerance than males in both populations, while the Florida population had higher thermal tolerance compared with the Connecticut population. An effect of developmental phenotypic plasticity on thermal tolerance was observed only in the Connecticut population. Our results show clearly that thermal performance is affected by complex interactions of the three tested variables. Ignoring sex-specific differences in thermal performance may result in a severe underestimation of population-level impacts of warming because of population decline due to sperm limitation. Furthermore, despite having a higher thermal tolerance, low-latitude populations may be more vulnerable to warming as they lack the ability to respond to increases in temperature through phenotypic plasticity.

Developmental Perspectives on Individual Variation: Implications for Understanding Nutritional Needs

Abstract: Genetic research has focused on identifying linkages between polymorphisms and phenotypic traits to explain variations in complex biologies. However, the magnitude of these linkages has not been particularly high. Conversely, the ability of developmental plasticity to generate biological variation from one genotype is well understood, while interest has emerged in the clinical significance of epigenetic processes, particularly those influenced by the external environment. Environmental cues in early development may induce responses that provide adaptive advantage later in life. The benefit of such responses depends on the fidelity of the prediction of the future environment. Life history and physiological changes mediated through epigenetic processes then follow, determining the later phenotype. Developmental mismatch, leading to disease, can arise from discordance between the fetal environment, which is relatively constant across generations, and the postnatal nutritional environment, which can change drastically within and between generations. Metabolic disorders represent the outcome of an individual living in an energetically inappropriate environment. Experimental and clinical evidence suggests that individual capacity to live in a given energetic environment is influenced by developmental factors acting through epigenetic mechanisms. Epigenetic biomarkers may be able to identify a risk of developmental mismatch and thus offer the opportunity for nutritional or other intervention.

On the role of sex differences for evolution in heterogeneous and changing fitness landscapes: insights from pygmy grasshoppers.

Abstract: Much research has been devoted to study evolution of local adaptations by natural selection, and to explore the roles of neutral processes and developmental plasticity for patterns of diversity amo ...

Environmental Influences on Early Development: A Comparison of Imprinting and Cortical Plasticity

Abstract: A comparison of results in imprinting research and studies of the developmental neurobiology of the visual cortex reveals striking similarities. In both areas information from the environment can only be stored during a sensitive period. The position of this sensitive period seems to be dependent to a certain degree on the developmental stage of the animal. The shape of the sensitivity curve is similar in all cases. Beyond the end of the sensitive period, new information can be superimposed on but cannot alter information acquired in early development. Storage of “normal” stimuli is facilitated by a certain preorganization of the receiving brain areas.