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Rapid local adaptation linked with phenotypic plasticity.

ABSTRACT: Models of "plasticity-first" evolution are attractive because they explain the rapid evolution of new complex adaptations. Nevertheless, it is unclear whether plasticity can facilitate rapid microevolutionary change between diverging populations. Here, we show how plasticity may have generated adaptive differences in fecundity between neighboring wild populations of burying beetles Nicrophorus vespilloides. These populations occupy distinct Cambridgeshire woodlands that are just 2.5 km apart and that probably originated from a common ancestral population about 1000-4000 years ago. We find that populations are divergently adapted to breed on differently sized carrion. Adaptive differences in clutch size and egg size are associated with divergence at loci connected with oogenesis. The populations differ specifically in the elevation of the reaction norm linking clutch size to carrion size (i.e., genetic accommodation), and in the likelihood that surplus offspring will be lost after hatching. We suggest that these two processes may have facilitated rapid local adaptation on a fine-grained spatial scale.

SUBMITTER: Sun SJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7403679 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Rapid local adaptation linked with phenotypic plasticity.

Sun Syuan-Jyun SJ Catherall Andrew M AM Pascoal Sonia S Jarrett Benjamin J M BJM Miller Sara E SE Sheehan Michael J MJ Kilner Rebecca M RM

Evolution letters 20200527 4

Models of "plasticity-first" evolution are attractive because they explain the rapid evolution of new complex adaptations. Nevertheless, it is unclear whether plasticity can facilitate rapid microevolutionary change between diverging populations. Here, we show how plasticity may have generated adaptive differences in fecundity between neighboring wild populations of burying beetles <i>Nicrophorus vespilloides</i>. These populations occupy distinct Cambridgeshire woodlands that are just 2.5 km ap ...[more]

PMID: 32774883

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Project description:One of the most intriguing questions in plant ecology is which evolutionary strategy allows widely distributed species to increase their ecological range and grow in changing environmental conditions. Phenotypic plasticity and local adaptations are major processes governing species range margins, but little is known about their relative contribution for tree species distribution in tropical forest regions. We investigated the relative role of phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation in the ecological distribution of the widespread palm Euterpe edulis in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Genetic sampling and experiments were performed in old-growth remnants of two forest types with higher (Seasonal Semideciduous Forests vs. Submontane Rainforest) and lower biogeographic association and environmental similarities (Submontane Rainforest vs. Restinga Forest). We first assessed the molecular genetic differentiation among populations, focusing on the group of loci potentially under selection in each forest, using single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) outliers. Further, we looked for potential adaptive divergence among populations in a common garden experiment and in reciprocal transplants for two plant development phases: seedling establishment and sapling growth. Analysis with outlier loci indicated that all individuals from the Semideciduous Forest formed a single group, while another group was formed by overlapping individuals from Submontane Rainforest and Restinga Forest. Molecular differentiation was corroborated by reciprocal transplants, which yielded strong evidence of local adaptations for seedling establishment in the biogeographically divergent Rainforest and Semideciduous Forest, but not for Restinga Forest and Submontane Rainforest. Phenotypic plasticity for palm seedling establishment favors range expansion to biogeographically related or recently colonized forest types, while persistence in the newly colonized ecosystem may be favored by local adaptations if climatic conditions diverge over time, reducing gene flow between populations. SNPs obtained by next-generation sequencing can help exploring adaptive genetic variation in tropical trees, which impose several challenges to the use of reciprocal transplants.

Dataset Information

Rapid local adaptation linked with phenotypic plasticity.

Publications

Rapid local adaptation linked with phenotypic plasticity.

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