A latitudinal gradient in thermal transgenerational plasticity and a test of theory

Munch, Stephan B.; Lee, Who Seung; Walsh, Matthew; Hurst, Thomas P.; Wasserman, Ben A.; Mangel, Marc; Salinas, Santiago

doi:10.1098/rspb.2021.0797

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…An experimental study found that manipulated high environmental predictability and autocorrelation drive the evolution of positive transgenerational plasticity in about 130 generations (Rescan et al 2020). Our findings are consistent with these theoretical and experimental studies, but our study is among the first to connect different autocorrelation scenarios with genetically‐based divergence in nature (Munch et al 2021). The findings suggest that high temporal autocorrelation of climatic conditions may contribute to the evolution of high anticipatory transgenerational plasticity.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

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Genotypic variation of transgenerational plasticity can be explained by environmental predictability at origins

Yin

Lin

et al. 2022

Oikos

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Transgenerational plasticity is the plastic response of offspring to ancestral environments. Theoretical studies and experimental evolution have demonstrated the importance of environmental predictability in driving the evolution of transgenerational plasticity. Nevertheless, the contribution of environmental predictability to the variation of transgenerational plasticity in nature remains unexplored. Here, we took advantage of the natural variation of Arabidopsis thaliana, and employed genotypes collected from different geographic locations to explore their transgenerational effects in response to drought and nutrient addition. We found that transgenerational plasticity depended on the offspring environment and the genotype. In particular, we found that genotypes with greater transgenerational plasticity in reproductive traits came from locations with greater temporal autocorrelation of annual temperature and precipitation. These results suggest that the evolutionary process shaping natural variation of transgenerational effect is not random, and the predictability of natural environments may contribute to the evolution of transgenerational effects. While the robustness of our study is limited by the number of genotypes analyzed, we hope this study provides an incentive to conduct a more comprehensive analysis towards understanding natural divergence of transgenerational plasticity.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…For annual plants, the high predictability between one and the next year indicates the high predictability between parental and offspring generations. We also calculated the decorrelation time (Munch et al 2021) as the number of years ACFs remain positive, measuring the length of periods that the environment remained predictable.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genotypic variation of transgenerational plasticity can be explained by environmental predictability at origins

Yin

Lin

et al. 2022

Oikos

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Moreover, performing experiments similar to the current study on M. cinxia populations from lower latitudes (e.g. from France, Spain, Morocco; similar to Munch et al 2021), where temporal autocorrelations for temperature are expected to be higher would allow investigating how climatic predictability drives the evolution adaptive TGP.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Exploring links between climatic predictability and the evolution of within- and transgenerational plasticity

Halali

Saastamoinen

2022

Preprint

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In variable environments, phenotypic plasticity can increase fitness by providing tight environment-phenotype matching. However, adaptive plasticity is expected to evolve only when the future selective environment can be predicted based on the prevailing conditions. That is, the juvenile environment should be predictive of the adult environment (within-generation plasticity) or the parental environment should be predictive of the offspring environment (transgenerational plasticity). Here, we test links between environmental predictability and evolution of adaptive plasticity by combining time series analyses and a common garden experiment using temperature as a stressor in a temperate butterfly (Melitaea cinxia). Time series analyses revealed that across season fluctuations in temperature over 48 years is overall predictable. However, within the growing season, temperature fluctuations showed high heterogeneity across years with low autocorrelations and timing of temperature peaks were asynchronous. Most life-history traits showed strong within-generation plasticity for temperature and traits such as body size and growth rate broke the temperature-size rule. Evidence for transgenerational plasticity, however, was weak and detected for only two traits each in an adaptive and non-adaptive direction. We suggest that low predictability of temperature fluctuations within the growing season likely disfavours the evolution of adaptive transgenerational plasticity but instead favours strong within-generation plasticity.

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“…Future studies using simulated climate change experiments (e.g., Shama et al, 2014) would allow testing such a hypothesis. Moreover, performing experiments similar to the current study on M. cinxia populations from lower latitudes (e.g., from France, Spain, Morocco; similar to Munch et al, 2021), where temporal autocorrelations for temperature are expected to be higher would allow investigating how climatic predictability drives the evolution adaptive TGP.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Exploring links between climatic predictability and the evolution of within‐ and transgenerational plasticity

Halali

Saastamoinen

2022

Ecology and Evolution

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In variable environments, phenotypic plasticity can increase fitness by providing tight environment‐phenotype matching. However, adaptive plasticity is expected to evolve only when the future selective environment can be predicted based on the prevailing conditions. That is, the juvenile environment should be predictive of the adult environment (within‐generation plasticity) or the parental environment should be predictive of the offspring environment (transgenerational plasticity). Moreover, the environmental predictability can also shape transient responses such as stress response in an adaptive direction. Here, we test links between environmental predictability and the evolution of adaptive plasticity by combining time series analyses and a common garden experiment using temperature as a stressor in a temperate butterfly ( Melitaea cinxia ). Time series analyses revealed that across season fluctuations in temperature over 48 years are overall predictable. However, within the growing season, temperature fluctuations showed high heterogeneity across years with low autocorrelations and the timing of temperature peaks were asynchronous. Most life‐history traits showed strong within‐generation plasticity for temperature and traits such as body size and growth rate broke the temperature‐size rule. Evidence for transgenerational plasticity, however, was weak and detected for only two traits each in an adaptive and non‐adaptive direction. We suggest that the low predictability of temperature fluctuations within the growing season likely disfavors the evolution of adaptive transgenerational plasticity but instead favors strong within‐generation plasticity.

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A latitudinal gradient in thermal transgenerational plasticity and a test of theory

Cited by 11 publications

References 35 publications

Genotypic variation of transgenerational plasticity can be explained by environmental predictability at origins

Genotypic variation of transgenerational plasticity can be explained by environmental predictability at origins

Exploring links between climatic predictability and the evolution of within- and transgenerational plasticity

Exploring links between climatic predictability and the evolution of within‐ and transgenerational plasticity

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