The Evolution of Life-History Traits in Mosquitofish Since Their Introduction to Hawaii in 1905: Rates of Evolution, Heritabilities, and Developmental Plasticity

Hormones mediate the expression of life history traits—phenotypic traits that contribute to lifetime fitness (i.e., reproductive timing, growth rate, number and size of offspring). The endocrine system shapes phenotype by organizing tissues during developmental periods and by activating changes in behavior, physiology, and morphology in response to varying physical and social environments. Because hormones can simultaneously regulate many traits (hormonal pleiotropy), they are important mediators of life history trade-offs among growth, reproduction, and survival. This chapter reviews the role of hormones in shaping life histories with an emphasis on developmental plasticity and reversible flexibility in endocrine and life history traits. It also discusses the advantages of studying hormone–behavior interactions from an evolutionary perspective. Recent research in evolutionary endocrinology has provided insight into the heritability of endocrine traits, how selection on hormone systems may influence the evolution of life histories, and the role of hormonal pleiotropy in driving or constraining evolution.

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A Primer of Life Histories

10.1093/oso/9780198839873.001.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jeffrey A. Hutchings

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Life Histories ◽

Life History Theory ◽

Life History Traits ◽

Reproductive Effort ◽

Effective Means ◽

Academic Experience ◽

Sustainable Exploitation ◽

Evolution Of Life ◽

Opportune Time

Life histories describe how genotypes schedule their reproductive effort throughout life in response to factors that affect their survival and fecundity. Life histories are solutions that selection has produced to solve the problem of how to persist in a given environment. These solutions differ tremendously within and among species. Some organisms mature within months of attaining life, others within decades; some produce few, large offspring as opposed to numerous, small offspring; some reproduce many times throughout their lives while others die after reproducing just once. The exponential pace of life-history research provides an opportune time to engage and re-engage new generations of students and researchers on the fundamentals and applications of life-history theory. Chapters 1 through 4 describe the fundamentals of life-history theory. Chapters 5 through 8 focus on the evolution of life-history traits. Chapters 9 and 10 summarize how life-history theory and prediction has been applied within the contexts of conservation and sustainable exploitation. This primer offers an effective means of rendering the topic accessible to readers from a broad range of academic experience and research expertise.

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The Evolution of Life History Traits: A Critique of the Theory and a Review of the Data

Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics ◽

10.1146/annurev.es.08.110177.001045 ◽

1977 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 145-171 ◽

Cited By ~ 683

Author(s):

S C Stearns

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Life History Traits ◽

Evolution Of Life

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Should I stay or should I go? Complex environments influence the developmental plasticity of flight capacity and flight-related trade-offs

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society ◽

10.1093/biolinnean/blz073 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 128 (1) ◽

pp. 59-69 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Jordan R Glass ◽

Zachary R Stahlschmidt

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Food Availability ◽

Life History Traits ◽

Developmental Plasticity ◽

Temperature Variability ◽

Field Cricket ◽

Valuable Insight ◽

Complex Environments ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Flight Capacity

Abstract Complex environments, characterized by co-varying factors (e.g. temperature and food availability) may cause animals to invest resources differentially into fitness-related traits. Thus, experiments manipulating multiple environmental factors concurrently provide valuable insight into the role of the environment in shaping not only important traits (e.g. dispersal capacity or reproduction), but also trait–trait interactions (e.g. trade-offs between traits). We used a multi-factorial design to manipulate variation in temperature (constant 28 °C vs. 28 ± 5 °C daily cycle) and food availability (unlimited vs. intermittent access) throughout development in the sand field cricket (Gryllus firmus). Using a univariate approach, we found that temperature variability and unlimited food availability promoted survival, development, growth, body size and/or reproductive investment. Using principal components as indices of resource allocation strategy, we found that temperature variability and unlimited food reduced investment into flight capacity in females. Thus, we detected a sex-specific trade-off between flight and other life-history traits that was developmentally plastic in response to variation in temperature and food availability. We develop an experimental and statistical framework to reveal shifts in correlative patterns of investment into different life-history traits. This approach can be applied to a range of biological systems to investigate how environmental complexity influences traits and trait trade-offs.

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