Is plasticity caused by single genes?/Reply

• Published in: Nature (London) 2018-03, Vol.555 (7698), p.E19-E23
• Main Authors: van Gestel, J, Weissing, F J, Ghalambor, Cameron K, Hoke, Kim L, Ruell, Emily W, Fischer, Eva K, Reznick, David N, Hughes, Kimberly A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation; Convergence; Evolution; Evolution & development; Gene expression; Plastic properties; Plasticity; Population; Simulation
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/nature25495

[...]divergent changes at the gene expression level can be associated with convergent changes (or lack of change) at the level of organismal plasticity; whereas convergent gene expression changes do not exclude diversity in organismal response patterns. In each simulation, the same optimal response readily evolved, but the network structures mediating this response differed substantially across replicate simulation runs (Fig. 1). [...]without accounting for regulatory interactions, it is often impossible to infer the organismal consequences of gene expression changes and, hence, their adaptive value. According to this definition, any factor that weakens the change in gene expression in the derived populations would be a source of non-adaptive plasticity. [...]a single regulatory change provides a much more parsimonious explanation for the observed transcription patterns than the large-scale evolutionary changes postulated by Ghalambor et al.1 Our alternative explanation does not refer to adaptive or non-adaptive plasticity, and it does not require evolution of gene regulation patterns (the wi effects remain constant).