scholarly journals Phenotypic plasticity and evolution by genetic assimilation

2006 ◽  
Vol 209 (12) ◽  
pp. 2362-2367 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Pigliucci
Keyword(s):  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Genetic Assimilation

Spread of Phenotypic Plasticity or Genetic Assimilation: The Possible Role of Genetic Constraints

1993 ◽  
Vol 164 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-François Gerard ◽  
Michel Vancassel ◽  
Brigitte Laffort
Keyword(s):  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Genetic Assimilation ◽  
Genetic Constraints

scholarly journals Rapid Evolution of Phenotypic Plasticity and Shifting Thresholds of Genetic Assimilation in the NematodeCaenorhabditis remanei

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 1103-1112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin L. Sikkink ◽  
Rose M. Reynolds ◽  
Catherine M. Ituarte ◽  
William A. Cresko ◽  
Patrick C. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Rapid Evolution ◽  
Genetic Assimilation

scholarly journals When three traits make a line: Evolution of phenotypic plasticity and genetic assimilation through linear reaction norms in stochastic environments

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torbjorn Ergon ◽  
Rolf Ergon
Keyword(s):  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Genetic Correlations ◽  
Reaction Norm ◽  
Genetic Effects ◽  
Environmental Perception ◽  
Genetic Assimilation ◽  
Reaction Norms ◽  
Environmental Value ◽  
Linear Reaction ◽  
Definition Of

Genetic assimilation results from selection on phenotypic plasticity, but quantitative genetics models of linear reaction norms considering intercept and slope as traits do not fully incorporate the process of genetic assimilation. We argue that intercept-slope reaction norm models are insufficient representations of genetic effects on linear reaction norms, and that considering reaction norm intercept as a trait is unfortunate because the definition of this trait relates to a specific environmental value (zero) and confounds genetic effects on reaction norm elevation with genetic effects on environmental perception. Instead we suggest a model with three traits representing genetic effects that respectively (i) are independent of the environment, (ii) alter the sensitivity of the phenotype to the environment, and (iii) determine how the organism perceives the environment. The model predicts that, given sufficient additive genetic variation in environmental perception, the environmental value at which reaction norms tend to cross will respond rapidly to selection after an abrupt environmental change, and eventually become equal to the new mean environment. This readjustment of the zone of canalization becomes completed without changes in genetic correlations, genetic drift or imposing any fitness costs on maintaining plasticity. The asymptotic evolutionary outcome of this three-trait linear reaction norm generally entails a lower degree of phenotypic plasticity than the two-trait model, and maximum expected fitness does not occur at the mean trait values in the population.

scholarly journals Genetic assimilation of ancestral plasticity during parallel adaptation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Wood ◽  
Jon A Holmberg ◽  
Owen Gregory Osborne ◽  
Andrew J Helmsetter ◽  
Luke T Dunning ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
Parallel Evolution ◽  
Genetic Assimilation ◽  
Ancestral Gene ◽  
Expression Levels ◽  
Degree Of Convergence ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Gene Expression Levels

Phenotypic plasticity in ancestral populations is hypothesised to facilitate adaptation, but evidence supporting its contribution is piecemeal and often contradictory. Further, whether ancestral plasticity increases the probability of parallel genetic and phenotypic adaptive changes has not been explored. The most general finding is that nearly all ancestral gene expression plasticity is reversed following adaptation, but this is usually examined transcriptome-wide rather than focused on the genes directly involved in adaptation. We investigated the contribution of ancestral plasticity to adaptive evolution of gene expression in two independently evolved lineages of zinc-tolerant Silene uniflora. We found that the general pattern of reversion is driven by the absence of a widespread stress response in zinc-adapted plants compared to ancestral, zinc-sensitive plants. Our experiments show that reinforcement of ancestral plasticity plays an influential role in the evolution of plasticity in derived populations and, surprisingly, one third of constitutive differences between ecotypes are the result of genetic assimilation of ancestral plasticity. Ancestral plasticity also increases the chance that genes are recruited repeatedly during adaptation. However, despite a high degree of convergence in gene expression levels between independently adapted lineages, genes with ancestral plasticity are as likely to have similar expression levels in adapted populations as genes without. Overall, these results demonstrate that ancestral plasticity does play an important role in adaptive parallel evolution, particularly via genetic assimilation across evolutionary replicates.

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