Does a complex life cycle affect adaptation to environmental change? Genome-informed insights for characterizing selection across complex life cycle.

ABSTRACT: Complex life cycles, in which discrete life stages of the same organism differ in form or function and often occupy different ecological niches, are common in nature. Because stages share the same genome, selective effects on one stage may have cascading consequences through the entire life cycle. Theoretical and empirical studies have not yet generated clear predictions about how life cycle complexity will influence patterns of adaptation in response to rapidly changing environments or tested theoretical predictions for fitness trade-offs (or lack thereof) across life stages. We discuss complex life cycle evolution and outline three hypotheses-ontogenetic decoupling, antagonistic ontogenetic pleiotropy and synergistic ontogenetic pleiotropy-for how selection may operate on organisms with

SUBMITTER: Albecker MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8634620 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature