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A neglected conceptual problem regarding phenotypic plasticity’s role in adaptive evolution : the importance of genetic covariance and social drive

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Date
10/2021
Author
Bailey, Nathan William
Desjonqueres, Camille
Drago Rosa, Ana
Rayner, Jack Gregory
Sturiale, Samantha Leigh
Zhang, Xiao
Keywords
Adaptation
Indirect genetic effects
Interacting phenotype
Phenotypic accommodation
Pleiotropy
Social drive
QH301 Biology
QH426 Genetics
T-NDAS
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Abstract
There is tantalizing evidence that phenotypic plasticity can buffer novel, adaptive genetic variants long enough to permit their evolutionary spread, and this process is often invoked in explanations for rapid adaptive evolution. However, the strength and generality of evidence for it is controversial. We identify a conceptual problem affecting this debate: recombination, segregation, and independent assortment are expected to quickly sever associations between genes controlling novel adaptations and genes contributing to trait plasticity that facilitates the novel adaptations by reducing their indirect fitness costs. To make clearer predictions about this role of plasticity in facilitating genetic adaptation, we describe a testable genetic mechanism that resolves the problem: genetic covariance between new adaptive variants and trait plasticity that facilitates their persistence within populations. We identify genetic architectures that might lead to such a covariance, including genetic coupling via physical linkage and pleiotropy, and illustrate the consequences for adaptation rates using numerical simulations. Such genetic covariances may also arise from the social environment, and we suggest the indirect genetic effects that result could further accentuate the process of adaptation. We call the latter mechanism of adaptation social drive, and identify methods to test it. We suggest that genetic coupling of plasticity and adaptations could promote unusually rapid ‘runaway’ evolution of novel adaptations. The resultant dynamics could facilitate evolutionary rescue, adaptive radiations, the origin of novelties, and other commonly studied processes.
Citation
Bailey , N W , Desjonqueres , C , Drago Rosa , A , Rayner , J G , Sturiale , S L & Zhang , X 2021 , ' A neglected conceptual problem regarding phenotypic plasticity’s role in adaptive evolution : the importance of genetic covariance and social drive ' , Evolution Letters , vol. 5 , no. 5 , pp. 444-457 . https://doi.org/10.1002/evl3.251
Publication
Evolution Letters
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/evl3.251
ISSN
2056-3744
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Evolution Letters published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) and European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Description
Funders: U.S. National Science Foundation (Grant Number(s): 1855962), China Scholarship Council (Grant Number(s): 201703780018), Natural Environment Research Council (Grant Number(s): IAPETUS2 PhD studentship (A.D.), NE/T0006191/1, NW/L011255/1).
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/23822

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