Environmental effects on genetic variance are likely to constrain adaptation in novel environments

Walter, Greg M.; Terranova, Delia; Clark, James W.; Cozzolino, Salvatore; Cristaudo, A; Sj, Hiscock; Bridle,

doi:10.1101/2021.02.08.430333

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 103 publications

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“…Reciprocal transplant experiments are often used to test how a population is affected by the environment. Non-zero reaction norms can be taken as either evidence for plasticity (e.g., Côte et al 2019; Walter et al 2021) or for local adaptation (e.g., Barton et al 2020; Martin et al 2021). However, the interpretation of reaction norms obtained in reciprocal transplant experiments may lead to opposite conclusions depending on whether the assessed trait is an adaptive trait or a fitness-indicator trait.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive, maladaptive, neutral, or absent plasticity: Hidden caveats of reaction norms

Eriksson

Kinnby

Wit

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Adaptive phenotypic plasticity may improve the response of individuals when faced with new environmental conditions. Typically, empirical evidence for plasticity is based on phenotypic reaction norms obtained in reciprocal transplant experiments. In such experiments, individuals from their native environment are transplanted into a different environment, and a number of trait values, potentially implicated in individuals' response to the new environment, are measured. However, the interpretations of reaction norms may differ depending on the nature of the assessed traits, which may not be known beforehand. For example, for traits that contribute to local adaptation, adaptive plasticity implies non-zero slopes of reaction norms. By contrast, for traits that are correlated to fitness, high tolerance to different environments (possibly due to adaptive plasticity in traits that contribute to adaptation) may, instead, imply flat reaction norms. Here we investigate the shape of reaction norms for adaptive versus fitness-correlated traits, and how they may affect the conclusions regarding the contribution of plasticity. To this end, we first simulate range expansion along an environmental gradient where plasticity evolves to different values locally and then perform reciprocal transplant experiments in silico. We show that reaction norms alone cannot inform us whether the assessed trait exhibits locally adaptive, maladaptive, neutral or no plasticity, without any additional knowledge of the traits assessed and species' biology. We use the insights from the model to analyse and interpret empirical data from reciprocal transplant experiments involving the marine isopod Idotea balthica sampled from two environments with different salinities, concluding that the low-salinity population likely has reduced adaptive plasticity relative to the high-salinity population. Overall, we conclude that, when interpreting results from reciprocal transplant experiments, it is necessary to consider whether traits assessed are locally adaptive with respect to the environmental variable accounted for in the experiments, or correlated to fitness.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive, maladaptive, neutral, or absent plasticity: Hidden caveats of reaction norms

Eriksson

Kinnby

Wit

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…chrysanthemifolius (Walter et al 2020b;Walter et al 2021b), and in other plant systems, including sunflowers (Royer et al 2009). We also used a Dualex instrument (Force-A, France) to measure the flavonol pigment content of the leaf.…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Adaptive divergence between these two Senecio species is strongly associated with contrasting leaf morphology and distinct patterns of plasticity, suggesting that leaf traits are under divergent selection (Walter et al 2020b;Walter et al 2021a;Walter et al 2021b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hidden genetic variation in plasticity provides the potential for rapid adaptation to novel environments

Walter

Clark

Terranova

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Adaptive plasticity increases population persistence, but can slow adaptation to changing environments by hiding the effects of different alleles on fitness. However, if plastic responses are no longer adaptive in novel environments, then differences among alleles can emerge and increase genetic variation in fitness that allows rapid adaptation. We tested this hypothesis by transplanting cuttings and seeds of a Sicilian daisy within and outside its native range, and quantifying variation in morphology, physiology, gene expression and fitness. We show that genetic variance in plasticity increases the potential for rapid adaptation to novel environments. Genetic variation in fitness was low across native environments where plasticity effectively tracked familiar environments. In the novel environment however, genetic variation in fitness increased threefold, and correlated with genetic variation in plasticity. Furthermore, genetic variation that can increase fitness in the novel environment had the lowest fitness at the native site, suggesting that adaptation to novel environments relies on genetic variation in plasticity that is selected against in native environments.

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“…Plasticity may be an important mechanism for populations to buffer environmental changes, as shown both empirically [17,18,19,20,21,22] and theoretically [9,13,16,23,24,25]. This is especially true when plasticity is adaptive (moving phenotypes towards the local optimum) [26,27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The role of phenotypic plasticity in the establishment of range margins

Eriksson

Rafajlović

2021

Preprint

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It has been argued that adaptive phenotypic plasticity may facilitate range expansions over spatially and temporally variable environments. However, plasticity may induce fitness costs. This may hinder the evolution of plasticity. Earlier modelling studies examined the role of plasticity during range expansions of populations with fixed genetic variance. However, genetic variance evolves in natural populations. This may critically alter model outcomes. We ask: How does the capacity for plasticity in populations with evolving genetic variance alter range margins that populations without the capacity for plasticity are expected to attain? We answered this question using computer simulations and analytical approximations. We found a critical plasticity cost above which the capacity for plasticity has no impact on the expected range of the population. Below the critical cost, by contrast, plasticity facilitates range expansion, extending the range in comparison to that expected for populations without plasticity. We further found that populations may evolve plasticity to buffer temporal environmental fluctuations, but only when the plasticity cost is below the critical cost. Thus, the cost of plasticity is a key factor involved in range expansions of populations with the potential to express plastic response in the adaptive trait.

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Environmental effects on genetic variance are likely to constrain adaptation in novel environments

Cited by 8 publications

References 103 publications

Adaptive, maladaptive, neutral, or absent plasticity: Hidden caveats of reaction norms

Adaptive, maladaptive, neutral, or absent plasticity: Hidden caveats of reaction norms

Hidden genetic variation in plasticity provides the potential for rapid adaptation to novel environments

The role of phenotypic plasticity in the establishment of range margins

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