Adaptation to Temporally Fluctuating Environments by the Evolution of Maternal Effects.

ABSTRACT: All organisms live in temporally fluctuating environments. Theory predicts that the evolution of deterministic maternal effects (i.e., anticipatory maternal effects or transgenerational phenotypic plasticity) underlies adaptation to environments that fluctuate in a predictably alternating fashion over maternal-offspring generations. In contrast, randomizing maternal effects (i.e., diversifying and conservative bet-hedging), are expected to evolve in response to unpredictably fluctuating environments. Although maternal effects are common, evidence for their adaptive significance is equivocal since they can easily evolve as a correlated response to maternal selection and may or may not increase the future fitness of offspring. Using the hermaphroditic nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, we here

SUBMITTER: Dey S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4766184 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature