Plasticity, symbionts and niche construction interact in shaping dung beetle development and evolution

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary Biology
• Developmental Biology
• Ecology

Background:

• Developmental plasticity allows organisms to adapt to environmental changes.
• Plasticity can influence future evolutionary paths by altering phenotypic variation.
• Organisms can modify their environment (niche construction), interacting with plasticity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore developmental plasticity mechanisms and evolutionary outcomes in horned dung beetles.
• To investigate how plasticity influences adaptation and range expansion in introduced species.
• To examine the interplay between plasticity, niche construction, and genetic variation.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of post-invasion evolution in an introduced Onthophagus species.
• Investigation of dung beetle responses to nutritional variation and environmental modification.
• Documentation of how niche construction masks heritable variation.

Main Results:

• Plasticity facilitated rapid range expansion and local adaptation in an introduced dung beetle species.
• Dung beetles plastically respond to nutrition and actively modify their developmental environment.
• Niche construction behaviors mask heritable variation for life history traits, shielding them from selection.

Conclusions:

• Plasticity plays a crucial role in adaptation, range expansion, and local adaptation.
• Interactions between plasticity and niche construction are complex, affecting evolutionary dynamics.
• An integrated Eco-Evo-Devo framework is valuable for studying plasticity's diverse roles in development and evolution.