Ecological and Evolutionary Development (lec 20/21) Flashcards
What is the classic view of genetics?
Genotype is the only contributor of Phenotype!
While a wild-type fly has regular antennas, an antennapedia mutant has legs instead of antennas. How can this be caused?
Caused by artificial laboratory-induced GENE MUTATION in flies (non-adaptive phenotype).
The Beak Variation amongst Darwin’s Finches is caused by:
Natural selection on quantitative VARIATION IN GENES (adaptive phenotype).
(T/F) Envrionment can interact with genes and have profound consequences on phenotypes. It is most impactful during development!
True!
How did Ronald Fisher (father of modern evolutionary theory and population genetics) view environmentally generated phenotypes?
He viewed them as noise!
“It is not surprising that such elaborate machinery (genotype –> phenotype) should sometimes go wrong”
1) What is the modern view of Ecological Developmental Genetics?
2) What is developmental plasticity?
1) Genotype + Environmental factors —(development) —> Phenotypes
2) The ability for a single genotype to give rise to alternative (different) phenotypes due to environmental variation acting on developmental processes.
*environmental factors can be biotic & abiotic
(T/F) Biotic factors include things such as climate, temperature, pH, rain and while abiotic factors include things such as food availability, symbiosis, bacteria, competition, predation, and social interaction.
False!
ABIOTIC factors include things such as climate, temperature, pH, rain and while BIOTIC factors include things such as food availability, symbiosis, bacteria, competition, predation, and social interaction.
Briefly describe the “triple helix”.
Through different combinations of genes (type A and B) and environment (type I and type II), a huge number of phenotypes are generated!
Instead of just gene type A —> phenotype type A .
Describe the Epigenetic Landscape concept determined by C.H. Waddington.
There is a hill with lots of valleys. When the ball is rolling down the hill, it can go through any of the valleys, leading to different phenotypic outcomes.
The different trajectories resemble the different development trajectories. Which trajectory taken can be influenced by the environment!
The food the newly hatched larva is being fed determines whether it will be a queen bee or a worker bee.
______ ____ is fed to queen bees.
Royal jelly
Royal jelly _____ body growth, ovary development, queen organs, while it ______ neurogenesis and worker organs.
Worker food _____ body growth, ovary development, queen organs, while it ______ neurogenesis and worker organs.
Increases; Decreases
Decreases; Increases
*this is due to EPIGENOMIC and HORMONAL responses that affect gene regulation and tissue & organ differentiation, ultimately leading to caste determination.
What are the key components of royal jelly and of worker jelly that lead to caste plasticity in bees?
Royal jelly: Juvenile Hormone and Royalactin
Worker jelly: miR162a and Queen Mandibular Pheromone
Royalactin is a key component of the queen’s diet while Casein is part of the worker’s diet.
How do these influence ovary size and weight at adult emergence?
Royalactin increases ovary size significantly while Casein has minimal effects on ovary size.
Royalactin also increases weight at adult emergence significantly while Casein has mild effects on weight at adult emergence.
There is a high plant miRNA level in _____ and a low plant miRNA level in ________. Thus, leading to worker bees and queen bees.
Pollen (worker food); Royal jelly (queen food)
(T/F) miR162a and Royalactin activate and suppress different pathways, leading to the two different castes.
True!
What is the phenotypic difference between a wet-season female butterfly and a dry-season female butterfly?
Wet season female: huge eyespots in the wings - important for defence!
Dry season female: lacks the huge eyespots but has incredible leaf/ground camouflage to help it wait until the wet season comes back
If the larva is growing at temperatures >24˚C, there is a _______ amount of ________ which causes expression of _______ in the imaginal disc, leading to wet season form.
If the larva is growing at temperatures <20˚C, there is a ______ amount of _______, leading to no expression of _______ in the imaginal disc, leading to dry season form.
Increased; 20-hydroxyecdysone; Distal-less
Decreased; 20-hydroxyecdysone; Distal-less
*Distal-less induces eyespots formation!
*Abiotic: temperature
How does a mole salamander larva become a metamorph and a paedomorph?
Metamorph: high thyroid hormone, drought-induced metamorphosis
Paedomorph: low thyroid hormone, low predator ponds
*Biotic: predator & Abiotic: drought
(T/F) Predator and prey-induced plasticity is an abiotic factor!
False!
It is a biotic factor.
Crustaceans’ predators produce ________/________ which the prey (crustaceans) can detect.
High levels of predation lead to:
Low levels of predation lead to:
Allelochemical/Kairomones
Lots of kairomones; crustaceans develop a horn to defend against predators.
Low levels of kairomones; no horn formed.
What is the difference between pheromones and kairomones?
Pheromones: produced within species
Kairomones: Produced by one species that another species can respond to
Pre-induced plasticity is seen in New Mexico spadefoot toads. Describe it.
Depending on what the mother is consuming; either a CARNIVORE diet (other tadpoles) or an OMNIVORE diet (brine shrimp, algae), the intestines and jaw developed of the baby is optimal to the diet it was fed.
Environmental factors determine which caste a developing ant will become.
What factors determine these?
1) Queen vs worker
2) Soldier vs worker
Queen vs worker: Abiotic (temp + photoperiod)
Soldier vs worker: Biotic (nutrition)
*IT’S THE SAME GENOME BUT DIFFERENT PHENOTYPES!
(T/F) Caste differentiation is similar to cell differentiation.
True!
If the ant embryo is expressed to high levels of _____ ______ (due to temperature and photoperiod), it becomes the queen.
There is a second switch point of ______ _____ in larva development and if the larva is exposed to high levels of nutrition, they become the ______ and if they are not, they become the _____ ______.
Juvenile Hormone
Juvenile Hormone; Soldiers; Minor Workers
*Darwin: phenotypes of a species can be so different due to non-genetic mechanisms (epigenetic/hormonal) that you think they’re different species!