Polyphenism of a Novel Trait Integrated Rapidly Evolving Genes into Ancestrally Plastic Networks.

ABSTRACT: Developmental polyphenism, the ability to switch between phenotypes in response to environmental variation, involves the alternating activation of environmentally sensitive genes. Consequently, to understand how a polyphenic response evolves requires a comparative analysis of the components that make up environmentally sensitive networks. Here, we inferred coexpression networks for a morphological polyphenism, the feeding-structure dimorphism of the nematode Pristionchus pacificus. In this species, individuals produce alternative forms of a novel trait-moveable teeth, which in one morph enable predatory feeding-in response to environmental cues. To identify the origins of polyphenism network components, we independently inferred coexpression modules for more conserved transcriptional respo

SUBMITTER: Casasa S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7826178 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature