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Errors as a Means of Reducing Impulsive Food Choice
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Matina C Donaldson-Matasci1, Carl T Bergstrom, Michael Lachmann

  • 1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. matina@email.arizona.edu

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PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Nongenetic variation aids survival in uncertain environments. Developmental strategies balance predictive plasticity and diversified bet hedging, with within-generation cue variation enhancing adaptability by promoting phenotypic diversity.

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Developmental biology
  • Information theory

Background:

  • Nongenetic phenotypic variation is crucial for species survival in unpredictable environments.
  • Predictive plasticity uses developmental cues to match phenotypes to anticipated environments.
  • Diversified bet hedging generates random phenotypic diversity for unpredictable conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To analyze developmental strategies in uncertain environments using information theory.
  • To investigate how within- and between-generation cue variation affects strategy balance.
  • To understand the role of developmental sensitivity in balancing predictive plasticity and bet hedging.

Main Methods:

  • Information theory modeling of developmental processes.
  • Analysis of environmental cue reliability under varying generational noise.
  • Evaluation of the adaptive significance of developmental sensitivity.

Main Results:

  • Within-generation cue variation reduces cue reliability but does not alter the optimal balance between predictive plasticity and diversified bet hedging.
  • Developmental sensitivity to cues, influenced by within-generation variation, promotes both environmental matching and phenotypic diversity.
  • The adaptive role of developmental sensitivity is contingent on the predictive power and variation structure of environmental cues.

Conclusions:

  • Developmental sensitivity is a key mechanism for adapting to environmental uncertainty.
  • Understanding phenotypic plasticity requires assessing both cue reliability and the structure of environmental variation.
  • The interplay between developmental cues and variation influences evolutionary strategies for survival.