scholarly journals Insights into how development and life-history dynamics shape the evolution of venom

EvoDevo ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim M. Surm ◽  
Yehu Moran
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Complex Trait ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Complex Life Cycles ◽  
Toxic Compounds ◽  
Evolution And Development ◽  
Ecological Implications ◽  
Mating Biology

AbstractVenomous animals are a striking example of the convergent evolution of a complex trait. These animals have independently evolved an apparatus that synthesizes, stores, and secretes a mixture of toxic compounds to the target animal through the infliction of a wound. Among these distantly related animals, some can modulate and compartmentalize functionally distinct venoms related to predation and defense. A process to separate distinct venoms can occur within and across complex life cycles as well as more streamlined ontogenies, depending on their life-history requirements. Moreover, the morphological and cellular complexity of the venom apparatus likely facilitates the functional diversity of venom deployed within a given life stage. Intersexual variation of venoms has also evolved further contributing to the massive diversity of toxic compounds characterized in these animals. These changes in the biochemical phenotype of venom can directly affect the fitness of these animals, having important implications in their diet, behavior, and mating biology. In this review, we explore the current literature that is unraveling the temporal dynamics of the venom system that are required by these animals to meet their ecological functions. These recent findings have important consequences in understanding the evolution and development of a convergent complex trait and its organismal and ecological implications.

scholarly journals From metamorphosis to maturity in complex life cycles: equal performance of different juvenile life history pathways

Ecology ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 93 (3) ◽  
pp. 657-667 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedikt R. Schmidt ◽  
Walter Hödl ◽  
Michael Schaub
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Complex Life Cycles

The Life-History of Pineus pinifoliae (Fitch) (Homoptera: Phylloxeridae) and its Effect on White Pine

1950 ◽  
Vol 82 (6) ◽  
pp. 117-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. Balch ◽  
G. R. Underwood
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Black Spruce ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
White Pine ◽  
Complex Life Cycles ◽  
Return Migrants ◽  
Winged Form ◽  
Typical Species ◽  
History Of

Pineus pinifoliae (Fitch) belongs to the Adelginae, a group characterized by unusually complex life-cycles. The typical species have at least five distinct forms, one bi-sexual and the others parthenogenetic. They alternate between two coniferous hosts, one of which is always a species of spruce (Picea). Galls are formed on spruce by a modification of the growth of the new shoot.The life-history of P. pinifoliae is only partially known. Patch has reported on observations in Maine which showed that the gall-making form flew from “black spruce” to the needles of white pine and that its offspring settled on the new shoots. She also described a morphologically similar winged form which developed on white-pine shoots and which she believed to be the return migrants. Annand made similar observations in Oregon and gave careful descriptions of three forms: the fundatrix, the gallicola migrans, and the exulis.

scholarly journals Phenotypic plasticity is aligned with phenological adaptation on micro- and macroevolutionary timescales

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen P. De Lisle ◽  
Maarit I. Mäenpää ◽  
Erik I. Svensson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Adaptive Response ◽  
Field Data ◽  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Complex Life Cycles

AbstractPhenology is a key determinant of fitness, particularly in organisms with complex life cycles with dramatic transitions from an aquatic to a terrestrial life stage. Because optimum phenology is influenced by local environmental conditions, particularly temperature, phenotypic plasticity could play an important role in adaptation to seasonally variable environments. Here, we used a 18-generation longitudinal field dataset from a wild insect (the damselfly Ischnura elegans) and show that phenology has strongly advanced, coinciding with increasing temperatures in northern Europe. Using individual fitness data, we show this advancement is most likely an adaptive response towards a thermally-dependent moving fitness optimum. These field data were complemented with a laboratory experiment, revealing that developmental plasticity to temperature quantitatively matches the environmental dependence of selection and can explain the observed phenological advance. We expand the analysis to the macroevolutionary level, using a public database of over 1 million occurrence records on the phenology of Swedish damselfly and dragonfly species. Combining spatiotemporally matched temperature data and phylogenetic information, we estimated the phenological reaction norms towards temperature for 49 Swedish species. We show that thermal plasticity in phenology is more closely aligned with local adaptation for odonate species that have recently colonized northern latitudes, whereas there is more mismatch at lower latitudes. Our results show that phenological plasticity plays a key role in microevolutionary adaptation within in a single species, and also suggest that such plasticity may have facilitated post-Pleistocene range expansion at the macroevolutionary scale in this insect clade.Impact StatementOrganisms with complex life cycles must time their life-history transitions to match environmental conditions favorable to survival and reproduction. The timing of these transitions – phenology – is therefore of critical importance, and phenology a key trait in adaptive responses to climate change. Here, we use field data from a single species and phylogenetic comparative from over 1 million individual damselfly and dragonfly records to show that plasticity in phenology underlies adaptation at both the microevolutionary scale (across generations in a single species) and the macroevolutionary scale (across deep time in a clade). Our results indicates that phenotypic plasticity has the potential to explain variation in phenology and adaptive response to climate change across disparate evolutionary time scales.

scholarly journals Transgenerational responses of molluscs and echinoderms to changing ocean conditions

2016 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 537-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline M. Ross ◽  
Laura Parker ◽  
Maria Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life History ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Abnormal Development ◽  
Phenotypic Change ◽  
Life History Stage ◽  
Carryover Effects ◽  
Complex Life Cycles ◽  
Larval Stages ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

Abstract We are beginning to understand how the larvae of molluscs and echinoderms with complex life cycles will be affected by climate change. Early experiments using short-term exposures suggested that larvae in oceans predicted to increase in acidification and temperature will be smaller in size, take longer to develop, and have a greater incidence of abnormal development. More realistic experiments which factored in the complex life cycles of molluscs and echinoderms found impacts not as severe as predicted. This is because the performance of one life history stage led to a significant carryover effect on the subsequent life history stage. Carryover effects that arise within a generation, for example, embryonic and larval stages, can influence juvenile and adult success. Carryover effects can also arise across a generation, known as transgenerational plasticity (TGP). A transgenerational response or TGP can be defined as a phenotypic change in offspring in response to the environmental stress experienced by a parent before fertilization. In the small number of experiments which have measured the transgenerational response of molluscs and echinoderms to elevated CO2, TGP has been observed in the larval offspring. If we are to safeguard ecological and economically significant mollusc and echinoderm species against climate change then we require more knowledge of the impacts that carryover effects have within and across generations as well as an understanding of the underlying mechanisms responsible for such adaptation.

scholarly journals Do traits separated by metamorphosis evolve independently? Concepts and methods

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1900) ◽  
pp. 20190445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Collet ◽  
Simon Fellous
Keyword(s):  
Life Stage ◽  
Genetic Correlations ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Complex Life Cycle ◽  
Multivariate Methods ◽  
Life Stages ◽  
Complex Life Cycles ◽  
Quantitative Characters ◽  
Genetic Patterns ◽  
G Matrices

Despite the ubiquity of complex life cycles, we know little of the evolutionary constraints exerted by metamorphosis. Here, we present pitfalls and methods to answer whether animals with a complex life cycle can independently adapt to the environments encountered at each life stage, with a specific focus on the microevolution of quantitative characters. We first discuss challenges associated with study traits and populations. We further emphasize the benefits of using a combination of approaches. We then develop how multivariate methods can limit several issues by revealing genetic patterns that are invisible when only considering trait-by-trait genetic correlations. Finally, we detail how Lande's work on sexual dimorphism can be applied in measuring G matrices across life stages. The methods and tools described here will contribute towards building a predictive framework for trait evolution across life stages.

scholarly journals Metamorphosing reef fishes avoid predator scent when choosing a home

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 921-924 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander L. Vail ◽  
Mark I. McCormick
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Life History ◽  
Coral Reef ◽  
Reef Fishes ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Complex Life Cycles ◽  
Pelagic Larvae ◽  
Innate Predator Recognition ◽  
Predator Odour ◽  
Predator Effects

Most organisms possess anti-predator adaptations to reduce their risk of being consumed, but little is known of the adaptations prey employ during vulnerable life-history transitions when predation pressures can be extreme. We demonstrate the use of a transition-specific anti-predator adaptation by coral reef fishes as they metamorphose from pelagic larvae to benthic juveniles, when over half are consumed within 48 h. Our field experiment shows that naturally settling damselfish use olfactory, and most likely innate, predator recognition to avoid settling to habitat patches manipulated to emit predator odour. Settlement to patches emitting predator odour was on average 24–43% less than to control patches. Evidence strongly suggests that this avoidance of sedentary and patchily distributed predators by nocturnal settlers will gain them a survival advantage, but also lead to non-lethal predator effects: the costs of exhibiting anti-predator adaptations. Transition-specific anti-predator adaptations, such as demonstrated here, may be widespread among organisms with complex life cycles and play an important role in prey population dynamics.

scholarly journals Impacts of climate change on the complex life cycles of fish

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Petitgas ◽  
Adriaan D. Rijnsdorp ◽  
Mark Dickey-Collas ◽  
Georg H. Engelhard ◽  
Myron A. Peck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Complex Life Cycles ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document