Department of Biology, University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, 37383.
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, United Kingdom.
Evolution. 2022 Mar;76(3):667-674. doi: 10.1111/evo.14339. Epub 2021 Sep 8.
Recent studies have shown that intraspecific patterns of phenotypic plasticity can mirror patterns of evolutionary diversification among species. This appears to be the case in Nicrophorus beetles. Within species, body size is positively correlated with the size of carrion used to provision larvae and parental performance. Likewise, among species, variation in body size influences whether species exploit smaller or larger carrion and the extent to which larvae depend on parental care. However, it is unclear whether developmental plasticity in response to carcass size, parental care, or both underlie transitions to new carcass niches. We examined this by testing whether variation in the conditions experienced by Nicrophorus vespilloides larvae influenced their ability to breed efficiently upon differently sized carcasses as adults. We found that the conditions experienced by larvae during development played a critical role in determining their ability to use large carcasses effectively as adults. Specifically, individuals that developed with parental care and on large carcasses were best able to convert the resources on a large carcass into offspring when breeding themselves. Our results suggest that parentally induced plasticity can be important in the initial stages of niche expansion.
最近的研究表明，种内表型可塑性模式可以反映物种间进化多样化的模式。这似乎是在 Nicrophorus 甲虫中出现的情况。在同种内，体型大小与用来喂养幼虫和父母表现的腐肉大小呈正相关。同样，在不同物种中，体型大小的变化会影响物种是否利用较小或较大的腐肉，以及幼虫依赖父母照顾的程度。然而，尚不清楚对腐肉大小、父母照顾或两者的发育可塑性是否是向新腐肉小生境转变的基础。我们通过测试 Nicrophorus vespilloides 幼虫在不同大小的腐肉中经历的条件变化是否影响它们作为成虫在不同大小的腐肉上有效繁殖的能力来检验这一点。我们发现，幼虫在发育过程中经历的条件对它们作为成虫有效利用大型腐肉的能力起着关键作用。具体来说，那些在有父母照顾和大型腐肉上发育的个体，在自己繁殖时，最能将大型腐肉上的资源转化为后代。我们的结果表明，父母诱导的可塑性在小生境扩展的初始阶段可能很重要。
