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The role of developmental plasticity in evolutionary innovation
Armin P Moczek1, Sonia Sultan, Susan Foster
1Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. armin@indiana.edu
Proceedings. Biological Sciences
|June 17, 2011
Summary
Developmental plasticity, the ability to change development based on environment, can drive evolutionary innovation. This flexibility allows for genetic accommodation and diversifies targets for evolution, leading to new traits.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Developmental biology
Background:
- Explaining the origin of novel traits is a central question in evolutionary biology.
- Developmental plasticity is hypothesized to facilitate the evolution of novel traits, but the mechanisms remain unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine how developmental plasticity promotes evolutionary innovation.
- To review empirical evidence and propose future research directions.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical examination of three pathways linking plasticity to innovation.
- Review of existing empirical evidence.
- Proposal of future experimental tests.
Main Results:
- Genetic accommodation offers a route for environmentally induced phenotypes to become heritable.
- Plasticity increases developmental "degrees of freedom," diversifying targets for evolution and creating novel phenotypes.
- Developmental genetic architectures of environment-dependent traits have specific implications for evolutionary novelty.
Conclusions:
- Developmental plasticity plays a crucial role in the origin and elaboration of novel traits.
- Further research is needed to fully understand the interplay between environment, development, and evolutionary innovation.
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