Scheiner Samuel M, Gomulkiewicz Richard, Holt Robert D
Division of Environmental Biology, National Science Foundation, Arlington, Virginia 22230.
Am Nat. 2015 May;185(5):594-609. doi: 10.1086/680552. Epub 2015 Feb 25.
Plastic changes in organisms' phenotypes can result from either abiotic or biotic effectors. Biotic effectors create the potential for a coevolutionary dynamic. Through the use of individual-based simulations, we examined the coevolutionary dynamic of two species that are phenotypically plastic. We explored two modes of biotic and abiotic interactions: ecological interactions that determine the form of natural selection and developmental interactions that determine phenotypes. Overall, coevolution had a larger effect on the evolution of phenotypic plasticity than plasticity had on the outcome of coevolution. Effects on the evolution of plasticity were greater when the fitness-maximizing coevolutionary outcomes were antagonistic between the species pair (predator-prey interactions) than when those outcomes were augmenting (competitive or mutualistic). Overall, evolution in the context of biotic interactions reduced selection for plasticity even when trait development was responding to just the abiotic environment. Thus, the evolution of phenotypic plasticity must always be interpreted in the full context of a species' ecology. Our results show how the merging of two theory domains--coevolution and phenotypic plasticity--can deepen our understanding of both and point to new empirical research.
生物体表型的可塑性变化可能源于非生物效应器或生物效应器。生物效应器创造了共同进化动态的可能性。通过基于个体的模拟，我们研究了两个具有表型可塑性的物种的共同进化动态。我们探索了生物和非生物相互作用的两种模式：决定自然选择形式的生态相互作用和决定表型的发育相互作用。总体而言，共同进化对表型可塑性进化的影响大于可塑性对共同进化结果的影响。当适应性最大化的共同进化结果在物种对之间是对抗性的（捕食者 - 猎物相互作用）时，对可塑性进化的影响比对这些结果是增强性的（竞争或互利共生）时更大。总体而言，即使性状发育仅对非生物环境做出反应，生物相互作用背景下的进化也会减少对可塑性的选择。因此，表型可塑性的进化必须始终在物种生态的完整背景下进行解释。我们的结果表明，共同进化和表型可塑性这两个理论领域的融合如何能够加深我们对两者的理解，并指向新的实证研究。
