Genetic Variants Underlying Plasticity in Natural Populations of Spadefoot Toads: Environmental Assessment versus Phenotypic Response.

ABSTRACT: Many organisms facultatively produce different phenotypes depending on their environment, yet relatively little is known about the genetic bases of such plasticity in natural populations. In this study, we describe the genetic variation underlying an extreme form of plasticity--resource polyphenism--in Mexican spadefoot toad tadpoles, Spea multiplicata. Depending on their environment, these tadpoles develop into one of two drastically different forms: a carnivore morph or an omnivore morph. We collected both morphs from two ponds that differed in which morph had an adaptive advantage and performed genome-wide association studies of phenotype (carnivore vs. omnivore) and adaptive plasticity (adaptive vs. maladaptive environmental assessment). We identified four quantitative trait loc

SUBMITTER: Isdaner AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11121243 | biostudies-literature | 2024 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature