Journal article
Diet and hormonal manipulation reveal cryptic genetic variation: implications for the evolution of novel feeding strategies
Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences, Vol.277(1700), pp.3569-3578
12/07/2010
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/107194
PMCID: PMC2982244
PMID: 20573627
Abstract
When experiencing resource competition or abrupt environmental change, animals often must transition rapidly from an ancestral diet to a novel, derived diet. Yet, little is known about the proximate mechanisms that mediate such rapid evolutionary transitions. Here, we investigated the role of diet-induced, cryptic genetic variation in facilitating the evolution of novel resource-use traits that are associated with a new feeding strategy—carnivory—in tadpoles of spadefoot toads (genus
Spea
). We specifically asked whether such variation in trophic morphology and fitness is present in
Scaphiopus couchii
, a species that serves as a proxy for ancestral
Spea
. We also asked whether corticosterone, a vertebrate hormone produced in response to environmental signals, mediates the expression of this variation. Specifically, we compared broad-sense heritabilities of tadpoles fed different diets or treated with exogenous corticosterone, and found that novel diets can expose cryptic genetic variation to selection, and that diet-induced hormones may play a role in revealing this variation. Our results therefore suggest that cryptic genetic variation may have enabled the evolutionary transition to carnivory in
Spea
tadpoles, and that such variation might generally facilitate rapid evolutionary transitions to novel diets.
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Details
- Title
- Diet and hormonal manipulation reveal cryptic genetic variation: implications for the evolution of novel feeding strategies
- Creators
- Cris C Ledón-Rettig - University of North CarolinaDavid W Pfennig - University of North CarolinaErica J Crespi - Vassar College
- Publication Details
- Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences, Vol.277(1700), pp.3569-3578
- Academic Unit
- Biological Sciences, School of
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Identifiers
- 99900547279001842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article