Wing plasticity and associated gene expression varies across the pea aphid biotype complex

0541385 - BC 2022 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Parker, B. J. - Driscoll, R. M. H. - Grantham, M. E. - Hrček, Jan - Brisson, J. A.
Wing plasticity and associated gene expression varies across the pea aphid biotype complex.
Evolution. Roč. 75, č. 5 (2021), s. 1143-1149. ISSN 0014-3820. E-ISSN 1558-5646
Institutional support: RVO:60077344
Keywords : gene expression * genetic assimilation * pea aphid
OECD category: Genetics and heredity (medical genetics to be 3)
Impact factor: 4.171, year: 2021
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/evo.14174

Developmental phenotypic plasticity is a widespread phenomenon that allows organisms to produce different adult phenotypes in response to different environments. Investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying plasticity has the potential to reveal the precise changes that lead to the evolution of plasticity as a phenotype. Here, we study wing plasticity in multiple host-plant adapted populations of pea aphids as a model for understanding adaptation to different environments within a single species. We describe the wing plasticity response of different “biotypes” to a crowded environment and find differences within as well as among biotypes. We then use transcriptome profiling to compare a highly plastic pea aphid genotype to one that shows no plasticity and find that the latter exhibits no gene expression differences between environments. We conclude that the loss of plasticity has been accompanied by a loss of differential gene expression and therefore that genetic assimilation has occurred. Our gene expression results generalize previous studies that have shown a correlation between plasticity in morphology and gene expression.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0326491