Increased socially mediated plasticity in gene expression accompanies rapid adaptive evolution
Date
09/03/2018Author
Grant ID
Ne/I027800/1
NE/G014906/1
NE/L011255/1
Keywords
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Recent theory predicts that increased phenotypic plasticity can facilitate adaptation as traits respond to selection. When genetic adaptation alters the social environment, socially mediated plasticity could cause co-evolutionary feedback dynamics that increase adaptive potential. We tested this by asking whether neural gene expression in a recently arisen, adaptive morph of the field cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus is more responsive to the social environment than the ancestral morph. Silent males (flatwings) rapidly spread in a Hawaiian population subject to acoustically orienting parasitoids, changing the population's acoustic environment. Experimental altering crickets’ acoustic environments during rearing revealed broad, plastic changes in gene expression. However, flatwing genotypes showed increased socially mediated plasticity, whereas normal-wing genotypes exhibited negligible expression plasticity. Increased plasticity in flatwing crickets suggests a coevolutionary process coupling socially flexible gene expression with the abrupt spread of flatwing. Our results support predictions that phenotypic plasticity should rapidly evolve to be more pronounced during early phases of adaptation.
Citation
Pascoal , S , Liu , X , Fang , Y , Paterson , S , Ritchie , M G , Rockliffe , N , Zuk , M & Bailey , N W 2018 , ' Increased socially mediated plasticity in gene expression accompanies rapid adaptive evolution ' , Ecology Letters , vol. 21 , no. 4 , pp. 546-556 . https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12920
Publication
Ecology Letters
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1461-023XType
Journal article
Rights
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12920
Description
This work was funded by Natural 524 Environment Research Council grants (NE/I027800/1, NE/G014906/1, NE/L011255/1).Collections
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