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SUMMARY:Developmental plasticity and life history evolution in amphibians 
 - Ivan Gomez-Mestre\, Seville\, Spain
DTSTART:20130227T130000Z
DTEND:20130227T140000Z
UID:TALK42696@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:25354
DESCRIPTION:Environmental factors affect gene expression during developmen
 t in all living organisms\, producing different phenotypes in different en
 vironments. Provided there are reliable environmental cues\,\nselection in
  heterogeneous environments favours plasticity as it allows organisms to a
 dapt to rapidly changing conditions. It is critical to account for develop
 mental plasticity in models of adaptive evolution because plasticity contr
 ibutes to the maintenance of genetic variation within populations\, reduce
 s bottlenecks when facing rapid environmental changes and confers an overa
 ll faster rate of adaptation. Conversely\, if plasticity costs are high an
 d the environment stabilises\, selection results in genetic assimilation\,
  which could result in trait divergence and species diversification. Curre
 nt evolutionary theory contemplates that phenotypic divergence between spe
 cies may initiate as environmentally-induced expression of\nalternative ph
 enotypes. Descendant lineages of a plastic ancestor evolving in stable div
 ergent environments may lose plasticity over time\, their development beco
 ming specialised to produce fixed\nphenotypes matching each environment. I
 n that case\, we would expect ancestral plasticity to mirror differences a
 mong taxa and that the same mechanism allowing ancestral plasticity was al
 so the main mechanism explainig species divergences. In that light\, we ar
 e\nstudying mechanisms of plasticity behind the evolutionary divergence of
  spadefoot toads. Old World species (Pelobates) breed in long lasting pond
 s and have long but plastic larval periods\, whereas New World species (Sc
 aphiopus) have specialised in ephemeral ponds and have evolved very short 
 larval periods. We hypothesise that Scaphiopus has undergone genetic accom
 modation of ancestral plasticity\, which has\nresulted in canalised short 
 larval periods. We are combining ecological\, physiological\, hormonal and
  genomic approaches to test this hypothesis.
LOCATION:Part II Lecture Theatre\, Department of Zoology
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