Abstract
Reversible phenotypic plasticity, the ability to change one’s phenotype repeatedly throughout life, can be selected for in environments that do not stay constant throughout an individual’s lifetime. It might also mitigate senescence, as the mismatch between the environment and a non-plastic individual’s traits is likely to increase as time passes. To understand why reversible plasticity may covary with lifespan, studies tend to assume unidirectional causality: plasticity evolves under suitable rates of environmental variation with respect to life history. Here we show that if lifespan also evolves in response to plasticity, then long life is not merely a context that sets the stage for lifelong plasticity. Instead, the causality is bidirectional because plasticity itself can select for longevity. Highly autocorrelated environmental fluctuations predict low investment in reversible plasticity and a phenotype that is poorly matched to the environment at older ages. Such environments select for high reproductive effort and short lifespans.
Highlights
Reversible phenotypic plasticity, the ability to change one’s phenotype repeatedly throughout life, can be selected for in environments that do not stay constant throughout an individual’s lifetime
When the environment varies at a suitable rate with respect to the individual’s life history, we expect phenotypic plasticity[6,7] as opposed to displaying a rigid expression of any genotype; this can extend to lifelong plasticity via reversible morphological change[8] or behavioural changes[9]
Our model forms a clear proof of principle that a long life is not merely a context that sets the stage for lifelong plasticity, but that plasticity itself can select for a longer life
Summary
Reversible phenotypic plasticity, the ability to change one’s phenotype repeatedly throughout life, can be selected for in environments that do not stay constant throughout an individual’s lifetime. It might mitigate senescence, as the mismatch between the environment and a non-plastic individual’s traits is likely to increase as time passes. Autocorrelated environmental fluctuations predict low investment in reversible plasticity and a phenotype that is poorly matched to the environment at older ages Such environments select for high reproductive effort and short lifespans. Given the costs of updating, a recent update might be best followed by a period of no updating, leading to an evolutionary question of the schedule according to which an organism should perform new updates
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