Evolution of, and via, Developmental Plasticity: Insights through the Study of Scaling Relationships

Scaling relationships emerge from differential growth of body parts relative to each other. As such, scaling relationships are at least in part the product of developmental plasticity. While some of the developmental genetic mechanisms underlying scaling relationships are starting to be elucidated, how these mechanisms evolve and give rise to the enormous diversity of allometric scaling observed in nature is less understood. Furthermore, developmental plasticity has itself been proposed as a mechanism that facilitates adaptation and diversification, yet its role in the developmental evolution of scaling relationships remains largely unknown. In this review, we first explore how the mechanisms of scaling relationships have evolved. We primarily focus on insect development and review how pathway components and pathway interactions have evolved across taxa to regulate scaling relationships across diverse traits. We then discuss the potential role of developmental plasticity in the evolution of scaling relationships. Specifically, we address the potential role of allometric plasticity and cryptic genetic variation in allometry in facilitating divergence via genetic accommodation. Collectively, in this article, we aim to bring together two aspects of developmental plasticity: the mechanistic underpinnings of scaling relationships and their evolution, and the potential role that plasticity plays in the evolutionary diversification of scaling relationships.