Rethinking phenotypic plasticity and its consequences for individuals, populations and species.
Rethinking phenotypic plasticity and its consequences for individuals, populations and species.
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DOI：
10.1038/hdy.2014.92
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发表时间：
2015-10
期刊：
影响因子：
3.8
通讯作者：
Forsman A
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Forsman A
许多研究致力于确定选择有利于灵活的个体或基因类型的条件，这些个体或基因类型能够根据环境线索改变其生长、发育和行为，揭示可塑性的机制，并探索其对个体、种群和物种之间多样性格局的影响。发育可塑性和表型灵活性对种群和物种的表现和生态成功的影响引起了相对有限但目前正在增长的兴趣。在这里，我再次强调，考虑到生物体是综合的、复杂的表型，对可塑性在这些背景下的作用的进一步理解需要一种“整体有机体”(而不是“单一性状”)的方法。我还认为，可塑性和遗传多态应该在一个共同的框架内进行分析和讨论。我从理论上总结了由发育可塑性和表型灵活性引起的表型差异如何影响种群水平表现的不同方面的预测。我认为，在表达可塑性和灵活性的能力方面，区分与可塑性引起的个体间更大的表型差异相关的影响和由个体之间的差异所介导的影响是重要的。最后，我认为，严格的预测测试需要能够量化和比较整个生物体可塑性的方法，以及在实验上操纵发育可塑性和表型灵活性的水平和能力的能力，而不是遗传变异。
Much research has been devoted to identify the conditions under which selection favours flexible individuals or genotypes that are able to modify their growth, development and behaviour in response to environmental cues, to unravel the mechanisms of plasticity and to explore its influence on patterns of diversity among individuals, populations and species. The consequences of developmental plasticity and phenotypic flexibility for the performance and ecological success of populations and species have attracted a comparatively limited but currently growing interest. Here, I re-emphasize that an increased understanding of the roles of plasticity in these contexts requires a ‘whole organism' (rather than ‘single trait') approach, taking into consideration that organisms are integrated complex phenotypes. I further argue that plasticity and genetic polymorphism should be analysed and discussed within a common framework. I summarize predictions from theory on how phenotypic variation stemming from developmental plasticity and phenotypic flexibility may affect different aspects of population-level performance. I argue that it is important to distinguish between effects associated with greater interindividual phenotypic variation resulting from plasticity, and effects mediated by variation among individuals in the capacity to express plasticity and flexibility as such. Finally, I claim that rigorous testing of predictions requires methods that allow for quantifying and comparing whole organism plasticity, as well as the ability to experimentally manipulate the level of and capacity for developmental plasticity and phenotypic flexibility independent of genetic variation.