Testing the grain-size model for the evolution of phenotypic plasticity.

Full Abstract

Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of a genotype to modify its phenotypic characteristics in response to different environments. Theory predicts that adaptive plasticity should primarily evolve in organisms that experience heterogeneous environments. An organism's dispersal rate is a key component in these models, because the degree of dispersal partly determines the extent of environmental heterogeneity. Here, I provide the first large-scale test of the theoretical prediction that phenotypic plasticity evolves in association with dispersal rate using meta-analysis of data from 258 experiments from the literature on plasticity in marine invertebrates. In line with predictions, phenotypic plasticity is generally greater in species with higher dispersal rates, suggesting that dispersal and environmental heterogeneity are important selective agents for evolution of plasticity in marine habitats.

Author information

Author/s: Hollander, Johan (J);

Affiliation: Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, United Kingdom. johan.hollander(-atsign-)marecol.gu.se

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Meta-Analysis

Journal: Evolution; international journal of organic evolution (Evolution), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jun; vol 62 (issue 6) : pp 1381-9

Dates: Created 2008/05/30; Completed 2008/09/03;

PMID: 18331460, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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