1
|
Cutter AD. Sexual conflict, heterochrony and tissue specificity as evolutionary problems of adaptive plasticity in development. Proc Biol Sci 2023; 290:20231854. [PMID: 37817601 PMCID: PMC10565415 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.1854] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2023] [Accepted: 09/15/2023] [Indexed: 10/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Differential gene expression represents a fundamental cause and manifestation of phenotypic plasticity. Adaptive phenotypic plasticity in gene expression as a trait evolves when alleles that mediate gene regulation serve to increase organismal fitness by improving the alignment of variation in gene expression with variation in circumstances. Among the diverse circumstances that a gene encounters are distinct cell types, developmental stages and sexes, as well as an organism's extrinsic ecological environments. Consequently, adaptive phenotypic plasticity provides a common framework to consider diverse evolutionary problems by considering the shared implications of alleles that produce context-dependent gene expression. From this perspective, adaptive plasticity represents an evolutionary resolution to conflicts of interest that arise from any negatively pleiotropic effects of expression of a gene across ontogeny, among tissues, between the sexes, or across extrinsic environments. This view highlights shared properties within the general relation of fitness, trait expression and context that may nonetheless differ substantively in the grain of selection within and among generations to influence the likelihood of adaptive plasticity as an evolutionary response. Research programmes that historically have focused on these separate issues may use the insights from one another by recognizing their shared dependence on context-dependent gene regulatory evolution.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Asher D. Cutter
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3B2
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Guariento RD, Dalponti G, Carneiro LS, Caliman A. Prey defense phenotype mediates multiple-predator effects in tri-trophic food-webs. J Anim Ecol 2022; 91:2023-2036. [PMID: 35839141 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13777] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2021] [Accepted: 07/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
1. The emphasis on mechanisms governing the interaction among predators (e.g., cooperation, competition, or intraguild predation) has driven the understanding of multiple-predator effects on prey survival and dynamics. However, overwhelming evidence shows that prey can adaptively respond to predators, exhibiting multiple defensive phenotypes to cope with predation. Nevertheless, there is still a relatively scarce theory connecting the emergence of prey defenses in complex multi-predator scenarios and their ecological consequences. 2. Using a mathematical approach, we evaluated the prevalence of defended prey phenotypes as a function of predator-induced mortality in a two-predator system, and how prey and phenotype dynamics affect trophic cascades. We also evaluated such responses when prey manifests a general defense against both predators (i.e., risk-reducing) or a specialized defense against one predator at the expense of defense against the other predator (i.e., risk trade-off), and when such phenotypes induce fitness and foraging costs. 3. We showed that the emergence of defended phenotypes under multiple predators depends on predator-induced mortality rates, the magnitude of phenotype costs, and the effect of the defensive phenotype on the performance of all predators. 4. Risk-reducing phenotypes enhance prioritized responses to predators with high killing rates, but prioritized responses are diminished when prey manifest risk trade-off phenotypes. Finally, we showed that resource abundance across the predation gradient directly depends on the prevalence of certain prey phenotypes and their effect on foraging costs. 5. Ultimately, our results depict the implications of prey defenses on prey and basal resources abundance in a multiple predators' environment, highlighting the role of the identity of defensive strategies in mediating the strength and nature of trophic cascades, via consumptive or non-consumptive effects.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Rafael Dettogni Guariento
- Laboratório de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, 79070-900, MS, Brasil
| | - Guilherme Dalponti
- Laboratório de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, 79070-900, MS, Brasil
| | - Luciana Silva Carneiro
- Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, 59078-970, RN, Brasil
| | - Adriano Caliman
- Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, 59078-970, RN, Brasil
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Oliver A, Cavalheri HB, Lima TG, Jones NT, Podell S, Zarate D, Allen E, Burton RS, Shurin JB. Phenotypic and transcriptional response of Daphnia pulicaria to the combined effects of temperature and predation. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0265103. [PMID: 35834446 PMCID: PMC9282536 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2022] [Accepted: 06/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Daphnia, an ecologically important zooplankton species in lakes, shows both genetic adaptation and phenotypic plasticity in response to temperature and fish predation, but little is known about the molecular basis of these responses and their potential interactions. We performed a factorial experiment exposing laboratory-propagated Daphnia pulicaria clones from two lakes in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California to normal or high temperature (15°C or 25°C) in the presence or absence of fish kairomones, then measured changes in life history and gene expression. Exposure to kairomones increased upper thermal tolerance limits for physiological activity in both clones. Cloned individuals matured at a younger age in response to higher temperature and kairomones, while size at maturity, fecundity and population intrinsic growth were only affected by temperature. At the molecular level, both clones expressed more genes differently in response to temperature than predation, but specific genes involved in metabolic, cellular, and genetic processes responded differently between the two clones. Although gene expression differed more between clones from different lakes than experimental treatments, similar phenotypic responses to predation risk and warming arose from these clone-specific patterns. Our results suggest that phenotypic plasticity responses to temperature and kairomones interact synergistically, with exposure to fish predators increasing the tolerance of Daphnia pulicaria to stressful temperatures, and that similar phenotypic responses to temperature and predator cues can be produced by divergent patterns of gene regulation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Aaron Oliver
- Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America
| | - Hamanda B. Cavalheri
- Department of Biological Sciences, Ecology Behavior and Evolution Section, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America
| | - Thiago G. Lima
- Department of Biological Sciences, Ecology Behavior and Evolution Section, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America
| | - Natalie T. Jones
- Department of Biological Sciences, Ecology Behavior and Evolution Section, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America
| | - Sheila Podell
- Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America
| | - Daniela Zarate
- Department of Biological Sciences, Ecology Behavior and Evolution Section, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America
| | - Eric Allen
- Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America
| | - Ronald S. Burton
- Marine Biology Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America
| | - Jonathan B. Shurin
- Department of Biological Sciences, Ecology Behavior and Evolution Section, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| |
Collapse
|