Phenotypic plasticity in development and evolution: facts and concepts

Fusco, Giuseppe; Minelli, Alessandro

doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0267

Cited by 454 publications

(309 citation statements)

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“…Although these responses underscore the physiological importance of oxygen, developmental plasticity exhibited by different insect groups may not be indicative of evolutionary changes (15), especially in natural settings where other abiotic influences, biotic interactions, and selective pressure from allometric scaling of life-history traits are also important (16)(17)(18)(19)(20). For example, temperature can also be an important influence on insect body size via physiological effects on metabolic oxygen demand and ecological effects on food supply, growing season, and foraging time (20).…”

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confidence: 99%

Environmental and biotic controls on the evolutionary history of insect body size

Clapham

Karr

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Giant insects, with wingspans as large as 70 cm, ruled the Carboniferous and Permian skies. Gigantism has been linked to hyperoxic conditions because oxygen concentration is a key physiological control on body size, particularly in groups like flying insects that have high metabolic oxygen demands. Here we show, using a dataset of more than 10,500 fossil insect wing lengths, that size tracked atmospheric oxygen concentrations only for the first 150 Myr of insect evolution. The data are best explained by a model relating maximum size to atmospheric environmental oxygen concentration (pO 2 ) until the end of the Jurassic, and then at constant sizes, independent of oxygen fluctuations, during the Cretaceous and, at a smaller size, the Cenozoic. Maximum insect size decreased even as atmospheric pO 2 rose in the Early Cretaceous following the evolution and radiation of early birds, particularly as birds acquired adaptations that allowed more agile flight. A further decrease in maximum size during the Cenozoic may relate to the evolution of bats, the Cretaceous mass extinction, or further specialization of flying birds. The decoupling of insect size and atmospheric pO 2 coincident with the radiation of birds suggests that biotic interactions, such as predation and competition, superseded oxygen as the most important constraint on maximum body size of the largest insects.paleoecology | temperature | maximum likelihood estimation B ecause metabolic oxygen demand increases with increasing body size, environmental oxygen concentration (pO 2 ) is frequently invoked as an important constraint on the size of animals (1-6). Giant late Paleozoic insects, with wingspans as large as 70 cm, are the iconic example of the oxygen-body size link; hyperoxic conditions during the Carboniferous and Permian are thought to have permitted the spectacular sizes of the largest insects ever (2, 4). The physiological basis linking insect body size and pO 2 has been elucidated in numerous experimental tests (5,7,8). Body size and metabolic rate respond to pO 2 when insects are reared in hypoxic or hyperoxic atmospheres (7,8), although the effects are not uniform in all taxa (9). Flying insects should be particularly susceptible to variations in atmospheric pO 2 because their flight musculature has high energy demands (10), particularly during periods of active flight (11, 12). The volume occupied by tracheae, tubes that transport oxygen throughout the body, scales hypermetrically with body volume, imposing further surface area-to-volume constraints on maximum size (13,14).Although these responses underscore the physiological importance of oxygen, developmental plasticity exhibited by different insect groups may not be indicative of evolutionary changes (15), especially in natural settings where other abiotic influences, biotic interactions, and selective pressure from allometric scaling of life-history traits are also important (16)(17)(18)(19)(20). For example, temperature can also be an important influence on insect body size via physiologica...

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confidence: 99%

Environmental and biotic controls on the evolutionary history of insect body size

Clapham

Karr

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Here, the positive relationship of RTS and current density may also suggest phenotypic plasticity in testes size; however, it is not clear why it evolved only in 2 out of 5 species. In general, phenotypic plasticity may involve substantial energetic and genetic costs [67], potentially decreasing its adaptive value. Thus, the negative relationship between RTS and density in 3 out of 5 species may have an underlying genetic basis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting effects of large density changes on relative testes size in fluctuating populations of sympatric vole species

Klemme

Soulsbury

Henttonen³

2014

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Across species, there is usually a positive relationship between sperm competition level and male reproductive effort on ejaculates, typically measured using relative testes size (RTS). Within populations, demographic and ecological processes may drastically alter the level of sperm competition and thus, potentially affect the evolution of testes size. Here, we use longitudinal records (across 38 years) from wild sympatric Fennoscandian populations of five species of voles to investigate whether RTS responds to natural fluctuations in population density, i.e. variation in sperm competition risk. We show that for some species RTS increases with density. However, our results also show that this relationship can be reversed in populations with large-scale between-year differences in density. Multiple mechanisms are suggested to explain the negative RTS-density relationship, including testes size response to density-dependent species interactions, an evolutionary response to sperm competition levels that is lagged when density fluctuations are over a certain threshold, or differing investment in pre-and post-copulatory competition at different densities. The results emphasize that our understanding of sperm competition in fluctuating environments is still very limited.

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“…(17). Estos rasgos del ala no dependen solo del acervo genético (19), sino que se ven afectados por variables ambientales, como la temperatura, la humedad relativa y la altitud (20,21).…”

Section: Anopheles Darlingiunclassified

Anopheles darlingi (Diptera: Culicidae) Rood 1926: Morphometric variations in wings and legs of populations from Colombia

2017

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Introducción. Poblaciones naturales de Anopheles darlingi, principal transmisor de malaria en Colombia, han mostrado plasticidad fenotípica en algunos de sus caracteres diagnósticos.Objetivo. Caracterizar variaciones morfométricas en patrones alares y de pata posterior en poblaciones naturales de An. darlingi recolectados en localidades donde la malaria es endémica.Materiales y métodos. Se analizaron mediante morfometría lineal y geométrica, los patrones de manchas de la vena Costa del ala de hembras silvestres recolectadas en los departamentos de Chocó, Guaviare, Meta y Vichada. El segundo tarsómero posterior de las hembras se analizó por morfometría lineal.Resultados. Se encontraron 19 patrones de manchas de la vena Costa, los patrones I con 49 % (n = 118/240) y VI con 28 % (n = 66) correspondieron a los más frecuentes. La proporción DSIII2/TaIII2 constituyó un carácter diagnóstico robusto debido a representó el 89% (n = 213/240) del total de especímenes analizados. Se encontraron diferencias significativas para la forma (F = 1,65, gl = 50, p < 0,001) y el tamaño (F = 3,37, gl = 5, p = 0,005) del ala entre poblaciones de diferentes localidades. El tamaño del centroide más pequeño 2,64 mm se encontró en poblaciones de Chocó.Conclusiones. Se registraron once patrones nuevos para manchas de la vena Costa y se confirma la dominancia de los patrones alares I y VI para poblaciones de An. darlingi de Colombia. Se confirma que la relación DSIII2/TaIII2 constituye un carácter diagnóstico robusto para la taxonomía de la especie. Se encontraron diferencias en el tamaño corporal de las poblaciones evaluadas, lo que reviste importancia para el análisis de aspectos bionómicos de la especie.

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Phenotypic plasticity in development and evolution: facts and concepts

Cited by 454 publications

References 64 publications

Environmental and biotic controls on the evolutionary history of insect body size

Environmental and biotic controls on the evolutionary history of insect body size

Contrasting effects of large density changes on relative testes size in fluctuating populations of sympatric vole species

Anopheles darlingi (Diptera: Culicidae) Rood 1926: Morphometric variations in wings and legs of populations from Colombia

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