Abstract
How complex physiological systems evolve is one of the major questions in evolutionary physiology. For example, how traits interact at the physiological and genetic level, what are the roles of development and plasticity in Darwinian evolution, and eventually how physiological traits will evolve, remains poorly understood. In this article we summarize the current frame of work evolutionary physiologists are employing to study the evolution of physiological adaptations, as well as the role of developmental and reversible phenotypic plasticity in this context. We also highlight representative examples of how the integration of evolutionary and developmental physiology, concomitantly with the mechanistic understanding of physiological systems, can provide a deeper insight on how endothermic vertebrates could cope with reduced ambient temperatures and oxygen availability characteristic of high altitude environments. In this context, high altitude offers a unique system to study the evolution of physiological traits, and we believe much can be gained by integrating theoretical and empirical knowledge from evolutionary biology, such as life-history theory or the comparative method, with the mechanistic understanding of physiological processes.
Highlights
Studying metabolic adaptations to high altitude (e.g., Rosenmann & Morrison 1975) provides a very interesting and useful model to understand the evolution of complex physiological systems, for many reasons
We attempt to (1) summarize the current framework on how to study physiological adaptation, given the background physiologists have from evolutionary biology; (2) demonstrate how this framework can be applied in the study of altitude adaptation and; (3) provide incentive to those students interested in physiology to learn ‘ on how animals work, and how physiological systems evolve’
The fields of physiology and evolutionary biology have long functioned as separate disciplines, with each providing their own important contributions to science, but without consistent attempts to examine their natural interrelationships
Summary
Studying metabolic adaptations to high altitude (e.g., Rosenmann & Morrison 1975) provides a very interesting and useful model to understand the evolution of complex physiological systems, for many reasons. How animals respond differently to variable altitudes given their inherent nature and evolutionary history (e.g. mammals do not have feathers), and which responses are adaptive in the true Darwinian sense may depend on several factors (e.g., Garland & Adolph 1991, Garland & Carter 1994, Feder et al 2000). In light of the current knowledge of evolutionary biology, physiologists acknowledge that not all traits are adaptive, and past history, genetic structure of the population, among many other factors, can influence for physiological patterns observed in different conditions. We attempt to (1) summarize the current framework on how to study physiological adaptation, given the background physiologists have from evolutionary biology; (2) demonstrate how this framework can be applied in the study of altitude adaptation and; (3) provide incentive to those students interested in physiology to learn ‘ on how animals work, and how physiological systems evolve’
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