Abstract
BackgroundEcological and evolutionary model organisms have provided extensive insight into the ecological triggers, adaptive benefits, and evolution of life-history driven developmental plasticity. Despite this, we still have a poor understanding of the underlying genetic changes that occur during shifts towards different developmental trajectories. The goal of this study is to determine whether we can identify underlying gene expression patterns that can describe the different life-history trajectories individuals follow in response to social cues of competition. To do this, we use the Australian black field cricket (Teleogryllus commodus), a species with sex-specific developmental trajectories moderated by the density and quality of calls heard during immaturity. In this study, we manipulated the social information males and females could hear by rearing individuals in either calling or silent treatments. We next used RNA-Seq to develop a reference transcriptome to study changes in brain gene expression at two points prior to sexual maturation.ResultsWe show accelerated development in both sexes when exposed to calling; changes were also seen in growth, lifespan, and reproductive effort. Functional relationships between genes and phenotypes were apparent from ontological enrichment analysis. We demonstrate that increased investment towards traits such as growth and reproductive effort were often associated with the expression of a greater number of genes with similar effect, thus providing a suite of candidate genes for future research in this and other invertebrate organisms.ConclusionsOur results provide interesting insight into the genomic underpinnings of developmental plasticity and highlight the potential of a genomic exploration of other evolutionary theories such as condition dependence and sex-specific developmental strategies.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-016-3119-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Ecological and evolutionary model organisms have provided extensive insight into the ecological triggers, adaptive benefits, and evolution of life-history driven developmental plasticity
Despite having a strong understanding of the various ecological factors that trigger plastic developmental strategies, we have a poor understanding of the underlying genetic changes that accompany these developmental shifts
Our study provides insight into each of these questions as we demonstrate that the socially-induced developmental plasticity of the Australian black field cricket (T. commodus) is associated with changes in the expression of suites of genes, including key transcription factors, associated with life-history, behavioural, and morphological traits that are under strong natural and sexual selection in this species
Summary
Ecological and evolutionary model organisms have provided extensive insight into the ecological triggers, adaptive benefits, and evolution of life-history driven developmental plasticity. Plasticity often leads to differences in morphological and/or behavioural traits (e.g., plasticity in response to pond drying; [2]), it is strongly linked to life-history traits driven by differences in development time [3]. We attempt to overcome this problem by using the Australian black field cricket (Teleogryllus commodus), a species that is well-described from an ecological and evolutionary perspective, and one where life-history driven plasticity can be categorized and followed through to maturity and death. We hope that exploring a species with a strong ecological understanding of the factors that result in continuous variation in phenotypic traits has the potential to highlight genes that may be important in life-history decisions and sex-specific variation in developmental strategies
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
