Hormonal pleiotropy and the evolution of allocation trade-offs

Recent empirical evidence suggests that trade-off relationships can evolve, challenging the classical image of their high entrenchment. For energy reliant traits, this relationship should depend on the endocrine system that regulates resource allocation. Here, we model changes in this system by mutating the expression and conformation of its constitutive hormones and receptors. We show that the shape of trade-offs can indeed evolve in this model through the combined action of genetic drift and selection, such that their evolutionarily expected curvature and length depend on context. In particular, the shape of a trade-off should depend on the cost associated with resource storage, itself depending on the traded resource and on the ecological context. Despite this convergence at the phenotypic level, we show that a variety of physiological mechanisms may evolve in similar simulations, suggesting redundancy at the genetic level. This model should provide a useful framework to interpret and unify the overly complex observations of evolutionary endocrinology and evolutionary ecology.