Topic
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: A “phenotype-first” model of the evolution of human life history is proposed, in which novel phenotypes were first generated by behaviorally or environmentally driven plasticity and were later gradually stabilized into species-defining traits through genetic accommodation.
Abstract: The life history of Homo sapiens is characterized by a lengthy period of juvenile dependence that requires extensive allocare, short interbirth intervals with concomitantly high fertility rates, and a life span much longer than that of other extant great apes. Although recognized as species-defining, the traits that make up human life history are also notable for their extensive within- and between-population variation, which appears to trace largely to phenotypic and developmental plasticity. In this review, we first discuss the adaptive origins of plasticity in life history strategy and its influence on traits such as growth rate, maturational tempo, reproductive scheduling, and life span in modern human populations. Second, we consider the likely contributions of this plasticity to evolutionary diversification and speciation within genus Homo. Contrary to traditional assumptions that plasticity slows the pace of genetic adaptation, current empirical work and theory point to the potential for plasticity...
184 citations
TL;DR: In this review, the neurobiological characteristics of zinc will be discussed, including its distribution and the processes by which its homeostasis is regulated, and the substantial effects zinc may have on neuronal functioning will be examined.
184 citations
TL;DR: Operant conditioning of the vertebrate H-reflex, which appears to be closely related to learning that occurs in real life, is accompanied by plasticity at multiple sites.
183 citations
TL;DR: Differences in the larval period explain 57% of the variance in relative limb length and 33% of snout length across species, and morphological diversity across these species appears to have evolved as a correlated response to selection for a reduced larval periods in desert-dwelling species.
Abstract: Developmental plasticity is found in most organisms, but its role in evolution remains controversial. Environmentally induced phenotypic differences may be translated into adaptive divergence among lineages experiencing different environmental conditions through genetic accommodation. To examine this evolutionary mechanism, we studied the relationship between plasticity in larval development, postmetamorphic morphology, and morphological diversity in spadefoot toads, a group of closely related species that are highly divergent in the larval period and body shape and are distributed throughout temperate areas of both the New and the Old World. Previous studies showed that accelerated metamorphosis is adaptive for desert-dwelling spadefoot toads. We show that even under common garden conditions, spadefoot toad species show divergent reaction norms for the larval period. In addition, experimentally induced changes in the larval period caused correlated morphological changes in postmetamorphic individuals such that long larval periods resulted in relatively longer hindlimbs and snouts. A comparative analysis of morphological variation across spadefoot toad species also revealed a positive correlation between the larval period and limb and snout lengths, mirroring the effects of within-species plasticity at a higher taxonomic level. Indeed, after ≈110 Ma of independent evolution, differences in the larval period explain 57% of the variance in relative limb length and 33% of snout length across species. Thus, morphological diversity across these species appears to have evolved as a correlated response to selection for a reduced larval period in desert-dwelling species, possibly diverging from ancestral plasticity through genetic accommodation.
182 citations
TL;DR: This review covers recent progress in three major areas of investigation in somatosensory systems: development, developmental plasticity and functional reorganization.
178 citations