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Microorganisms evolve rapidly due to their large population sizes and short generation times, often exhibiting measurable changes within days under laboratory conditions. Natural selection acts on standing genetic variation, enabling the retention and amplification of beneficial traits that confer fitness advantages in changing environments.Adaptive Pigment Regulation in RhodobacterIn Rhodobacter, a genus of purple non-sulfur bacteria, light-harvesting pigments such as bacteriochlorophyll and...
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Influence of plasticity and learning on evolution under directional selection.

Ingo Paenke1, Bernhard Sendhoff, Tadeusz J Kawecki

  • 1Institute of Applied Informatics and Formal Description Methods, University of Karlsruhe, D-76128 Karlsruhe, Germany. ingo.paenke@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de

The American Naturalist
|September 18, 2007
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Phenotypic plasticity can either speed up or slow down evolution. This study introduces a framework showing plasticity accelerates evolution when aligned with selection, but decelerates it when opposed, unifying previous models.

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Genetics
  • Quantitative Genetics

Background:

  • Phenotypic plasticity, learning, and developmental noise are proposed to influence the rate of genetically based evolutionary change.
  • Existing mathematical models and simulations offer conflicting predictions on whether plasticity accelerates or decelerates evolution.
  • A general framework to predict the impact of plasticity on evolutionary rates under directional selection is lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop a general framework for understanding how phenotypic plasticity affects the rate of evolution under directional selection.
  • To identify conditions under which plasticity accelerates or decelerates evolutionary change.
  • To unify and explain results from specific models in the literature.

Main Methods:

  • Formulated a framework based on the 'fitness gain gradient', measuring plasticity's effect on the genotypic value-fitness relationship slope.
  • Analyzed the sign of the fitness gain gradient relative to the direction of selection.
  • Derived conditions for evolutionary acceleration/deceleration for various plasticity forms, including developmental noise.

Main Results:

  • Plasticity magnifies the response to selection when the fitness gain gradient shares the same sign as the selection direction.
  • Plasticity slows the evolutionary response when the fitness gain gradient has the opposite sign to the selection direction.
  • The framework successfully explains and unifies findings from several specific models.

Conclusions:

  • The fitness gain gradient provides a general predictor for plasticity's effect on evolutionary rates.
  • The interplay between plasticity and selection direction determines whether evolution is accelerated or decelerated.
  • This unifying framework offers new insights into the complex relationship between plasticity and adaptive evolution.