Environment-to-phenotype mapping and adaptation strategies in varying environments.

ABSTRACT: Biological organisms exhibit diverse strategies for adapting to varying environments. For example, a population of organisms may express the same phenotype in all environments ("unvarying strategy") or follow environmental cues and express alternative phenotypes to match the environment ("tracking strategy"), or diversify into coexisting phenotypes to cope with environmental uncertainty ("bet-hedging strategy"). We introduce a general framework for studying how organisms respond to environmental variations, which models an adaptation strategy by an abstract mapping from environmental cues to phenotypic traits. Depending on the accuracy of environmental cues and the strength of natural selection, we find different adaptation strategies represented by mappings that maximize the long-term gro

SUBMITTER: Xue B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6628789 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature