Local adaptation in the transgenerational response to copper pollution in the bryozoan Bugula neritina.

ABSTRACT: Transgenerational plasticity (TGP)-when a parent or previous generation's environmental experience affects offspring phenotype without involving a genetic change-can be an important mechanism allowing for rapid adaptation. However, despite increasing numbers of empirical examples of TGP, there appears to be considerable variation in its strength and direction, yet limited understanding of what causes this variation. We compared patterns of TGP in response to stress across two populations with high versus low historical levels of stress exposure. Specifically, we expected that exposure to acute stress in the population experiencing historically high levels of stress would result in adaptive TGP or alternatively fixed tolerance (no parental effect), whereas the population with low levels of

SUBMITTER: Neylan IP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9666713 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature