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Updated: Oct 17, 2025

Resurrection of Dormant Daphnia magna: Protocol and Applications

Resurrection of Dormant Daphnia magna: Protocol and Applications

Published on: January 19, 2018

Integrating developmental plasticity into eco-evolutionary population dynamics.

Isabel M Smallegange¹

¹Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, PO Box 94240, 1090, GE, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; School of Natural & Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK.

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

|October 12, 2021

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

This study proposes a developmental system perspective for understanding how populations evolve. It shifts focus from gene-based traits to the complex interactions shaping phenotypes during development, offering new insights into eco-evolutionary dynamics.

Keywords:

anticipatory developmental plasticity developmental systems theory eco-evolutionary feedbacks genotype-specified reaction norms mitigating developmental plasticity

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Last Updated: Oct 17, 2025

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary biology
Developmental biology
Ecology

Background:

Growing interest in integrating developmental plasticity into eco-evolutionary dynamics.
Current models often rely on genotype-specified reaction norms, emphasizing gene-based inheritance and phenotype expression.

Purpose of the Study:

To propose a developmental system perspective as an alternative framework for understanding phenotype evolution.
To differentiate this new perspective from the traditional genotype-based approach.
To explore its implications for understanding population responses to environmental change.

Main Methods:

Conceptual framework development.
Comparison of assumptions and predictions between the developmental system perspective and genotype-specified reaction norms.
Application to cue-and-response systems of developmental plasticity.

Main Results:

Phenotypes arise from complex interactions involving genes, biochemistry, somatic state, and environment during individual development.
The developmental system, not just genes, is proposed as the unit of phenotype evolution.
Contrasting predictions emerge when analyzing anticipatory and mitigating developmental plasticity.

Conclusions:

The developmental system perspective offers a novel framework for eco-evolutionary dynamics.
This approach can provide deeper explanations for how evolved developmental plasticity facilitates population adaptation to environmental change.