Developmental plasticity mirrors differences among taxa in spadefoot toads linking plasticity and diversity

Gómez-Mestre, Iván; Buchholz, Daniel R.

doi:10.1073/pnas.0603562103

Cited by 162 publications

(188 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…The role that plasticity, induced during the larval phase, may play in driving this adaptive divergence (e.g. through genetic assimilation) deserves more research (Gomez-Mestre & Buchholz 2006, Wund et al 2008). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Current results in amphibians have revealed contrasting patterns in morphological inductions between different environmental factors. For instance, although increase in temperature and resource availability is predicted to boost both developmental and growth rates, their effects on hind leg length appear to be the opposite: longer legs when tadpoles are raised with increased resources (Emerson 1986, Tejedo et al 2000a) and shorter legs when grown at higher temperatures (Gomez-Mestre & Buchholz 2006). Therefore, it is currently difficult to establish a general pattern of how the larval environment affects morphological plasticity at metamorphosis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Only recently have studies reported on the allometric (size-independent) shifts in hind leg length and head shape to varying growth conditions during the larval stages (Tejedo et al 2000a, Relyea 2001, Van Buskirk & Saxer 2001, Gomez-Mestre & Buchholz 2006, Nicieza et al 2006, Richter-Boix et al 2006a, Orizaola & Laurila 2009, which are partly due to allometric differences in the relative growth rates of the body and either hind leg or head (Emerson 1986, Emerson et al 1988. In frogs, hind leg length and head shape are well-suited traits for analysing environmental effects on morphological variation since both traits have clear and testable morphofunctional implications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Contrasting effects of environmental factors during larval stage on morphological plasticity in post-metamorphic frogs

Tejedo¹,

Marangoni²,

Pertoldi³

et al. 2010

Clim. Res.

109

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In organisms with complex life cycles, environmentally induced plasticity across sequential stages can have important consequences on morphology and life history traits such as developmental and growth rates. However, previous research in amphibians and other ectothermic vertebrates suggests that some morphological traits are generally insensitive to environmental inductions. We conducted a literature survey to examine the allometric responses in relative hind leg length and head shape of post-metamorphic anuran amphibians to induced environmental (temperature, resource level, predation and desiccation risk) variation operating during the larval phase in 44 studies using 19 species. To estimate and compare plastic responses across studies, we employed both an index of plasticity and effect sizes from a meta-analysis. We found contrasting trait responses to different environmental cues. Higher temperatures increased development more than growth rate and induced smaller heads but not overall shifts in hind leg length. In contrast, an increment in resource availability increased growth more than development, with a parallel increase in hind leg length but no change in head shape. Increases in predation risk decreased both development and growth rates and slightly reduced relative hind leg length, but there was no change in head shape. Pond desiccation induced quick development and low growth rates, with no changes in morphology. Across environments, both hind leg and head shape plasticity were positively correlated with growth rate plasticity. However, plasticity of developmental rate was only correlated with head shape plasticity. Overall, these results suggest that environmental trends predicted by global warming projections, such as increasing pond temperature and accelerating pond desiccation, will significantly influence hind leg and head morphology in metamorphic frogs, which may affect performance and, ultimately, fitness.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Contrasting effects of environmental factors during larval stage on morphological plasticity in post-metamorphic frogs

Tejedo¹,

Marangoni²,

Pertoldi³

et al. 2010

Clim. Res.

109

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Where predators were introduced, Daphnia exhibited constitutive upregulation of the arthropod melanin gene ebony and Ddc (dopa decarboxylase), both responsible for the adaptive reduction of melanin production. Reduced plasticity has also evolved in populations of three-spine stickleback from geologically recent (post-glacial) freshwater lakes in the expression of sodium-potassium ATPase (ATP1A1) [35] with adaptation to fresh water, and in New World spadefoot toad species that exhibit constitutively short larval development as a result of their short natal pond durations [36]. Additional evidence of genetic assimilation is found in the apparent loss of ancestral polyphenisms across diverse taxa (electronic supplementary material, table S1).…”

Section: (C) Genetic Accommodation In Natural Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of developmental plasticity in evolutionary innovation

et al. 2011

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Explaining the origins of novel traits is central to evolutionary biology. Longstanding theory suggests that developmental plasticity, the ability of an individual to modify its development in response to environmental conditions, might facilitate the evolution of novel traits. Yet whether and how such developmental flexibility promotes innovations that persist over evolutionary time remains unclear. Here, we examine three distinct ways by which developmental plasticity can promote evolutionary innovation. First, we show how the process of genetic accommodation provides a feasible and possibly common avenue by which environmentally induced phenotypes can become subject to heritable modification. Second, we posit that the developmental underpinnings of plasticity increase the degrees of freedom by which environmental and genetic factors influence ontogeny, thereby diversifying targets for evolutionary processes to act on and increasing opportunities for the construction of novel, functional and potentially adaptive phenotypes. Finally, we examine the developmental genetic architectures of environment-dependent trait expression, and highlight their specific implications for the evolutionary origin of novel traits. We critically review the empirical evidence supporting each of these processes, and propose future experiments and tests that would further illuminate the interplay between environmental factors, condition-dependent development, and the initiation and elaboration of novel phenotypes.

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“…In contrast to alternative phenotypes that are costly responses to transient antagonistic pressures in the environment, resource polyphenisms enable niche partitioning and its associated character displacement within species [9]. The consequent divergence within species might then be followed by genetic assimilation or accommodation of optimized forms [10,11], possibly leading to morphological diversification [1,2,12,13]. Given the abundance of known resource polyphenisms, such plasticity may be a common diversifying force in nature [1,9,14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive value of a predatory mouth-form in a dimorphic nematode

2014

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Polyphenisms can be adaptations to environments that are heterogeneous in space and time, but to persist they require conditional-specific advantages. The nematode Pristionchus pacificus is a facultative predator that displays an evolutionarily conserved polyphenism of its mouthparts. During development, P. pacificus irreversibly executes either a eurystomatous (Eu) or stenostomatous (St) mouth-form, which differ in the shape and number of movable teeth. The Eu form, which has an additional tooth, is more complex than the St form and is thus more highly derived relative to species lacking teeth. Here, we investigate a putative fitness trade-off for the alternative feeding-structures of P. pacificus. We show that the complex Eu form confers a greater ability to kill prey. When adults were provided with a prey diet, Eu nematodes exhibited greater fitness than St nematodes by several measures, including longevity, offspring survival and fecundity when followed by bacterial feeding. However, the two mouthforms had similar fecundity when fed ad libitum on bacteria, a condition that would confer benefit on the more rapidly developing St form. Thus, the two forms show conditional fitness advantages in different environments. This study provides, to our knowledge, the first functional context for dimorphism in a model for the genetics of plasticity.

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Developmental plasticity mirrors differences among taxa in spadefoot toads linking plasticity and diversity

Cited by 162 publications

References 64 publications

Contrasting effects of environmental factors during larval stage on morphological plasticity in post-metamorphic frogs

Contrasting effects of environmental factors during larval stage on morphological plasticity in post-metamorphic frogs

The role of developmental plasticity in evolutionary innovation

Adaptive value of a predatory mouth-form in a dimorphic nematode

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