Morphological plasticity reduces the effect of poor developmental conditions on fledging age in mourning doves
Morphological plasticity reduces the effect of poor developmental conditions on fledging age in mourning doves
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形态可塑性降低了不良发育条件对哀鸽雏鸟年龄的影响
DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2010.0022
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发表时间：
2010
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
David A. W. Miller
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
David A. W. Miller
发育可塑性在使生物体适应生长过程中所经历的环境方面是不可或缺的。适应性可塑性反应在个体发育过程中对应激反应的优先发展中可能特别重要。为了评估这一点，我研究了哀鸽的发育条件与早期生长的关系，以及这如何影响雏鸟年龄，雏鸟是鸟类重要的生活史转变。哀鸽的生活史与减少羽化年龄的强烈选择压力是一致的。因此，我预测，在面对与实验产卵量增加相关的营养压力时，幼鱼将优先考虑促进早期羽化的结构，以减少整体生长放缓对羽化年龄的影响。育雏量的增加减缓了雏鸟的整体结构生长，影响了不同身体部位生长的相对分配。总翅膀面积是羽翼年龄的最佳预测因子，羽翼相对于整体体型较大的雏鸟羽翼较大。虽然大窝的雏鸟由于整体生长较慢而在较晚的年龄羽化，但相对于没有发生身体部位之间的可塑性，优先生长翅膀的影响减少了大约1.6天。达到这一重要的生活史转变所需的预期发育时间缩短了11%。结果表明，对翅膀生长的优先分配可以影响这种生活史转变的时间，并且发育过程中的形态可塑性可以在鸟类发育过程中产生适应性的短期效应。
Developmental plasticity can be integral in adapting organisms to the environment experienced during growth. Adaptive plastic responses may be especially important in prioritizing development in response to stress during ontogeny. To evaluate this, I examined how developmental conditions for mourning doves related to early growth and how this affected fledging age, an important life-history transition for birds. The life history of mourning doves is consistent with strong selective pressure to minimize fledging age. Therefore, I predicted that in the face of nutritional stress associated with experimental brood-size increases, young would prioritize growth to structures that promote early fledging to reduce the effect of slowed overall growth on fledging age. Increasing brood size slowed overall structural growth of nestlings and affected the relative allocation of growth among different body parts. Total wing area was the best predictor of fledging age and individuals from larger broods had larger wings relative to overall body size. Although nestlings from larger broods fledged at later ages owing to slower overall growth, prioritization of wing growth reduced this effect by an estimated 1.6 days relative to the delay if plasticity among body parts had not occurred. This was an 11 per cent reduction in the predicted developmental time it took to reach this important life-history transition. Results demonstrate that preferential allocation to wing growth can affect the timing of this life-history transition and that morphological plasticity during development can have adaptive near-term effects during avian development.