Laboratory biases hinder Eco-Evo-Devo integration: Hints from the microbial world

How specific environmental contexts contribute to the robustness and variation of developmental trajectories and evolutionary transitions is a central point in Ecological Evolutionary Developmental Biology ("Eco-Evo-Devo"). However, the articulation of ecological, evolutionary and developmental processes into integrative frameworks has been elusive, partly because standard experimental designs neglect or oversimplify ecologically meaningful contexts. Microbial models are useful to expose and discuss two possible sources of bias associated with conventional gene-centered experimental designs: the use of laboratory strains and standard laboratory environmental conditions. We illustrate our point by showing how contrasting developmental phenotypes in Myxococcus xanthus depend on the joint variation of temperature and substrate stiffness. Microorganismal development can provide key information for better understanding the role of environmental conditions in the evolution of developmental variation, and to overcome some of the limitations associated with current experimental approaches.