Le GDR PlasPhen lance une série de webinaires (séminaires en ligne) sur le thème de la plasticité phénotypique. Le premier aura lieu le 15 décembre 2020 à 14h, sur le premier axe du GDR (Mécanismes moléculaires de la plasticité; hôte : JM Gibert). Les informations de diffusion seront fournies ultérieurement sur la liste du diffusion du GDR.
Antonia Monteiro. The origin and evolution of a complex physiological and developmental adaptation – phenotypic plasticity in eyespot size in satyrid butterflies
Traits that are plastic are sensitive to the environment. But how do developing traits evolve sensitivity to the environment that is adaptive? I will discuss how the evolution of phenotypic plasticity for traits can be examined using the comparative method. We broke down the evolution of environmental sensitivity of a well-studied trait – eyespots in satyrid butterflies – into three distinct and essential components, and then examined the origin and evolution of each of these three components on a phylogeny of butterfly species, with and without eyespot size plasticity. We discovered that the evolution of eyespot size plasticity took place over millions of years using very particular types of mutations as well as pre-adaptations shared by all the examined species.