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145 results for “Plasticity variation”

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dryad28/100

Data from: Evolution of root plasticity responses to variation in soil nutrient distribution and concentration

Root plasticity, a trait that can respond to selective pressure, may help plants forage for nutrients in heterogeneous soils. Agricultural breeding programs have artificially selected for increased yield under comparatively homogeneous soil conditions, potentially decreasing the capacity for plasticity in crop plants like barley (Hordeum vulgare). However, the effects of domestication on the evolution of root plasticity are essentially unknown. Using a split container approach, we examined differences in root plasticity among three domestication levels of barley germplasm (wild, landrace, and cultivar) grown under different concentrations and distribution patterns of soil nutrients. Domestication level, nutrient concentration, and nutrient distribution interactively affected average root diameter; differential root allocation (within-plant plasticity) was greatest in wild barley (H. spontaneum), especially under low nutrient levels. Correlations of within-plant root plasticity and plant size were most pronounced in modern cultivars under low nutrient conditions. Barley plants invested more resources to root systems when grown in low nutrient soils and allocated more roots to higher nutrient locations. Root plasticity in barley is scale dependent and varies with domestication level. Although wild barley harbors a greater capacity for within-plant root plasticity than domesticated barley, cultivars exhibited the greatest capacity to translate within-plant plasticity into increased plant size.

opencc-zeroDec 2011View details →

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Data from: Adaptive genetic potential and plasticity of trait variation in the foundation prairie grass Andropogon gerardii across the US Great Plains' climate gradient: Implications for climate change and restoration

Plant response to climate depends on a species' adaptive potential. To address this, we used reciprocal gardens to detect genetic and environmental plasticity effects on phenotypic variation and combined with genetic analyses. Four reciprocal garden sites were planted with three regional ecotypes of Andropogon gerardii, a dominant Great Plains prairie grass, using dry, mesic, wet ecotypes originating from western KS to Illinois that span 500 to 1,200 mm rainfall year-1. We aimed to answer: (1) What is the relative role of genetic constraints and phenotypic plasticity in controlling phenotypes? 2) When planted in the home site, is there a trait syndrome for each ecotype? 3) How are genotypes and phenotypes structured by climate? (4) What are implications of these results for response to climate change and use of ecotypes for restoration? Surprisingly, we did not detect consistent local adaptation. Rather, we detected co-gradient variation primarily for most vegetative responses. All ecotypes were stunted in western KS. Eastward, the wet ecotype was increasingly robust relative to other ecotypes. In contrast, fitness showed evidence for local adaptation in wet and dry ecotypes with wet and mesic ecotypes producing little seed in western KS. Earlier flowering time in the dry ecotype suggests adaptation to end of season drought. Considering ecotype traits in home site, the dry ecotype was characterized by reduced canopy area and diameter, short plants, and low vegetative biomass and putatively adapted to water limitation. The wet ecotype was robust, tall with high biomass and wide leaves putatively adapted for the highly competitive, light-limited Eastern Great Plains. Ecotype differentiation was supported by random forest classification and PCA. We detected genetic differentiation and outlier genes associated primarily with precipitation. We identified candidate gene GA1 for which allele frequency associated with plant height. Sourcing of climate adapted ecotypes should be considered for restoration.

opencc-zeroMay 2020View details →

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Data from: Selection on structural allelic variation biases plasticity estimates

Wang and Althoff (2019) explored the capacity of Drosophila melanogaster to exhibit adaptive plasticity in a novel environment. In a full-sib, half-sib design, they scored the activity of the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and plastic responses, measured as changes in ADH activity across ethanol concentrations in the range of 0-10% (natural variation) and 16% (the novel environment). ADH activity increased with alcohol concentration, and there was a positive association between larval viability and ADH activity in the novel environment. They also reported that families exhibiting greater plasticity had higher larval survival in the novel environment, concluding that ADH plasticity is adaptive. However, the four authors now concur that, since the study estimated plasticity from phenotypic differences across environments using full-sib families, it is not possible to disentangle the contributions of allele frequency changes at the Adh locus from regulatory control at loci known to influence ADH activity. Selective changes in allele frequencies may thus conflate estimates of plasticity; any type of "plasticity" (adaptive, neutral, or maladaptive) could be inferred depending on allele frequencies. The problem of scoring sib-groups after selection should be considered in any plasticity study that cannot use replicated genotypes. Researchers should monitor changes in allele frequencies as one mechanism to deal with this issue.

opencc-zeroDec 2018View details →

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Data from: How to measure maturation: a comparison of probabilistic methods used to test for genotypic variation and plasticity in the decision to mature

Maturation is a developmental trait that plays a key role in shaping organisms' life-history. However, progress in understanding how maturation phenotypes evolve has been held back by confusion over how best to model maturation decisions and a lack of studies comparing genotypic variation in maturation. Here, we fitted probabilistic maturation reaction norms (PMRNs) to data collected from five clones of Daphnia magna and five of Daphnia pulex collected from within and between different populations. We directly compared the utility of modeling approaches that assume maturation to be a process with an instantaneous rate with those that do not by fitting maturation rate and logistic regression models, and emphasize similarities and differences between them. Our results demonstrate that in Daphnia, PMRNs using a logistic regression approach were simpler to use and provided a better fit to the data. The decision to mature was plastic across a range of growth trajectories and dependent upon both body size and age. However, the age effect was stronger in D. magna than D. pulex and varied considerably between clones. Our results support the idea that maturation thresholds can evolve but also suggest that the notion of a threshold based on a single fixed state is an oversimplification that underestimates the adaptability of these important traits.

opencc-zeroDec 2011View details →

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Data from: Selection in a fluctuating environment leads to decreased genetic variation and facilitates the evolution of phenotypic plasticity

Changes in the environment are expected to induce changes in the quantitative genetic variation, which influences the ability of a population to adapt to environmental change. Furthermore, environmental changes are not constant in time, but fluctuate. Here we investigate the effect of rapid, continuous and/or fluctuating temperature changes in the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus, using an evolution experiment followed by a split brood experiment. In line with expectations, individuals responded in a plastic way and had an overall higher potential to respond to selection after a rapid change in the environment. After selection in an environment with increasing temperature, plasticity remained unchanged (or decreased) and environmental variation decreased, especially when fluctuations were added; these results were unexpected. As expected, the genetic variation decreased after fluctuating selection. Our results suggest that fluctuations in the environment have major impact on the response of a population to environmental change; in a highly variable environment with low predictability a plastic response might not be beneficial and the response is genetically and environmentally canalized resulting in a low potential to respond to selection and low environmental sensitivity. Interestingly, we found greater variation for phenotypic plasticity after selection, suggesting that the potential for plasticity to evolve is facilitated after exposure to environmental fluctuations. Our study highlights that environmental fluctuations should be considered when investigating the response of a population to environmental change.

opencc-zeroDec 2011View details →

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Data from: DNA methylation mediates genetic variation for adaptive transgenerational plasticity

Environmental stresses experienced by individual parents can influence offspring phenotypes in ways that enhance survival under similar conditions. Although such adaptive transgenerational plasticity is well documented, its transmission mechanisms are generally unknown. One possible mechanism is environmentally induced DNA methylation changes. We tested this hypothesis in the annual plant Polygonum persicaria, a species known to express adaptive transgenerational plasticity in response to parental drought stress. Replicate plants of 12 genetic lines (sampled from natural populations) were grown in dry versus moist soil. Their offspring were exposed to the demethylating agent zebularine or to control conditions during germination and then grown in dry soil. Under control germination conditions, the offspring of drought-stressed parents grew longer root systems and attained greater biomass compared with offspring of well-watered parents of the same genetic lines. Demethylation removed these adaptive developmental effects of parental drought, but did not significantly alter phenotypic expression in offspring of well-watered parents. The effect of demethylation on the expression of the parental drought effect varied among genetic lines. Differential seed provisioning did not contribute to the effect of parental drought on offspring phenotypes. These results demonstrate that DNA methylation can mediate adaptive, genotype-specific effects of parental stress on offspring phenotypes.

opencc-zeroDec 2015View details →

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Data from: Individual variation in the social plasticity of water dragons

Individuals should alter when they socially associate with conspecifics to avoid potentially costly interactions. Moreover, individuals may vary in their propensity to use information about conspecifics when making such social decisions. However, surprisingly little is known about either the determinants of, or individual variation in, such 'social plasticity'. We show here that eastern water dragons (Intellegama lesueurii lesueurii) may simultaneously use information from different components of their social environment when deciding whether or not to socially associate. In particular, we found that individuals altered when they socially associated according to levels of potential conflict and competition in their social environment; both sexes socially associated more at higher local density than would be expected under increased random encounters. Further, females were more likely to socially associate during the breeding season, and when there were more males and/or conspecifics whom they typically avoided in their social environment. This suggests that females may seek safety in numbers when the potential for intra-sexual conflict or sexual harassment is high. Using a behavioural reaction-norm framework, we also provide novel evidence to show that individuals vary in the extent and direction of their social plasticity, and that males varied more than females. Our study thus implies that individuals use multiple cues in their environment when deciding to socially associate, and that the resulting social plasticity varies between the sexes and between individuals.

opencc-zeroDec 2018View details →

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Data from: Heritability, evolvability, phenotypic plasticity and temporal variation in sperm-competition success of Drosophila melanogaster

Sperm-competition success (SCS) is seen as centrally important for evolutionary change: superior fathers sire superior sons and thereby inherit the traits that make them superior. Additional hypotheses, that phenotypic plasticity in SCS and sperm ageing explain variation in paternity, are less considered. Even though various alleles have individually been shown to be correlated with variation in SCS, few studies have addressed the heritability, or evolvability, of overall SCS. Those studies that have, found low or no heritability and have not examined evolvability. They have further not excluded phenotypic plasticity, and temporal effects on SCS, despite their known dramatic effects on sperm function. In Drosophila melanogaster, we found that both standard components of sperm competition, sperm defence and sperm offence, showed non-significant or insignificant heritability across several offspring cohorts. Instead, our analysis revealed, for the first time, the existence of phenotypic plasticity in SCS across an extreme environment (5% CO2), and an influence of sperm ageing. Evolvability of SCS was substantial for sperm defence but virtually absent for sperm offence. Our results suggest that the paradigm of explaining evolution by sperm competition is more complex and will benefit from further experimental work on the heritability or evolvability of SCS, measuring phenotypic plasticity, and separating the effects of sperm competition and sperm ageing.

opencc-zeroDec 2015View details →

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Data from: Variation in plastic responses of a globally distributed picoplankton species to ocean acidification

Phytoplankton are the basis of marine food webs, and affect biogeochemical cycles. As CO2 levels increase, shifts in the frequencies and physiology of ecotypes within phytoplankton groups will affect their nutritional value and biogeochemical function. However, studies so far are based on a few representative genotypes from key species. Here, we measure changes in cellular function and growth rate at atmospheric CO2 concentrations predicted for the year 2100 in 16 ecotypes of the marine picoplankton Ostreococcus. We find that variation in plastic responses among ecotypes is on par with published between-genera variation, so the responses of one or a few ecotypes cannot estimate changes to the physiology or composition of a species under CO2 enrichment. We show that ecotypes best at taking advantage of CO2 enrichment by changing their photosynthesis rates most should increase in relative fitness, and so in frequency in a high-CO2 environment. Finally, information on sampling location, and not phylogenetic relatedness, is a good predictor of ecotypes likely to increase in frequency in this system.

opencc-zeroDec 2012View details →

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Data from: Cellular basis of morphological variation and temperature-related plasticity in Drosophila melanogaster strains with divergent wing shapes

Organ shape evolves through cross-generational changes in developmental patterns at cellular and/or tissue levels that ultimately alter tissue dimensions and final adult proportions. Here, we investigated the cellular basis of an artificially selected divergence in the outline shape of Drosophila melanogaster wings, by comparing flies with elongated or rounded wing shapes but with remarkably similar wing sizes. We also tested whether cellular plasticity in response to developmental temperature was altered by such selection. Results show that variation in cellular traits is associated with wing shape differences, and that cell number may play an important role in wing shape response to selection. Regarding the effects of developmental temperature, a size-related plastic response was observed, in that flies reared at 16 °C developed larger wings with larger and more numerous cells across all intervein regions relative to flies reared at 25 °C. Nevertheless, no conclusive indication of altered phenotypic plasticity was found between selection strains for any wing or cellular trait. We also described how cell area is distributed across different intervein regions. It follows that cell area tends to decrease along the anterior wing compartment and increase along the posterior one. Remarkably, such pattern was observed not only in the selected strains but also in the natural baseline population, suggesting that it might be canalized during development and was not altered by the intense program of artificial selection for divergent wing shapes.

opencc-zeroDec 2013View details →

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What doesn't kill you can make you stronger: variation in plasticity in response to early temporally heterogeneous hydrological experience

Temporally heterogeneous environments may drive rapid and continuous plastic responses, leading to highly variable plasticity in traits. However, direct experimental evidence for such meta-plasticity due to environmental heterogeneity is rare. Our objective was to investigate the effects of early experience with temporally heterogeneous water availability on the subsequent plasticity of plant species in response to water conditions. We subjected eight plant species from three habitats, four exotic and four native to North America, to initial exposure to either a first round of alternating drought and inundation treatment (Ehet, temporally heterogeneous experience) or a consistently moderate water supply (Ehom, homogeneous experience), and to a second round of drought, moderate watering or inundation treatments. Afterwards the performance in a series of traits of these species, after the first and second rounds of treatments, was measured. Compared to Ehom, Ehet increased final mean total mass of all species considered together, but did not affect mean mortality. Ehet relative to Ehom, decreased the initial total mass of native species as a group, but increased the mass of exotic species or species from hydric habitats; Ehet also increased the late growth of natives, but did not for exotics, and increased the late growth of mesic species more than xeric and hydric species. <div> Our results suggest that previous exposure to temporal heterogeneity in water supply may be not beneficial immediately, but can be beneficial for plant growth and response to water stress later in a plant's lifetime. Heterogeneous experiences may not necessarily enhance the degree of plasticity, but may improve the expression of plasticity in terms of better performance later, effects of which differ for different groups of species, suggesting species-specific strategies for dealing with fluctuating abiotic environments. Synthesis. Previous temporally heterogeneous experience can benefits plant growth later in life though modulating the expression of plasticity, leading to adaptive meta-plasticity. Studies of meta-plasticity may not only improve our understanding of the importance of variable plasticity in relation how plants cope with environmental challenges, but also the costs versus benefits of plastic responses and its limits over the long term. </div>

opencc-zeroJun 2022View details →

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Figure 1 in The life cycle in late Paleozoic eryopid temnospondyls: developmental variation, plasticity and phylogeny

Figure 1. Larval and small juvenile specimens of Onchiodon labyrinthicus Geinitz. (a) LFUG 13530, (b) LFUG 13405, (c) MMG SaP 390, (d) LFUG 13361, (e) MMG SaP 237, (f) LFUG 13343. Dark grey shading depicts deeper levels of bone. Scale equals 10 mm.

opencc-by-4.0Sep 2021View details →

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