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Eco-Evo-Devo: developmental symbiosis and developmental plasticity as evolutionary agents
Scott F.Gilbert1,2, Thomas C.G.Bosch3 and Cristina Ledn-Rettig4
Abstract | The integration of research from developmental biology and ecology into evolutionary theory has given rise to a relatively new field, ecological evolutionary developmental biology (Eco-Evo-Devo). This field integrates and organizes concepts such as developmental symbiosis, developmental plasticity, genetic accommodation, extragenic inheritance and niche construction. This Review highlights the roles that developmental symbiosis and developmental plasticity have in evolution. Developmental symbiosis can generate particular organs, can produce selectable genetic variation for the entire animal, can provide mechanisms for reproductive isolation, and may have facilitated evolutionary transitions. Developmental plasticity is crucial for generating novel phenotypes, facilitating evolutionary transitions and altered ecosystem dynamics, and promoting adaptive variation through genetic accommodation and niche construction. In emphasizing such non-genomic mechanisms of selectable and heritable variation, Eco-Evo-Devo presents a new layer of evolutionary synthesis.
Department of Biology, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081, USA.
Biotechnology Institute, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland. Zoological Institute, Christian-Albrechts-University, D-24118 Kiel, Germany.
Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA.
Correspondence to S.F.G. e-mail: mailto:sgilber1%40swarthmore.edu?subject=
Web End =sgilber1@ mailto:sgilber1%40swarthmore.edu?subject=
Web End =swarthmore.edu doi:10.1038/nrg3982 Published online 15 September 2015
Evolutionary biology today tries to explain a natural world that appears remarkably different from the nature of the past century. It is a dynamic world, where symbiosis and phenotypic plasticity are the rules, not the exceptions. High-throughput sequencing has uncovered a world of complex interactions between developing organisms and the biotic and abiotic components of their environments. This newfound awareness of the dependency of phenotypes on other species and environmental conditions presents additional layers of complexity for evolutionary theory and raises many questions that are being addressed by new research programmes. The field of ecological evolutionary developmental biology (Eco-Evo-Devo) attempts to study and model this new view of nature by organizing concepts such as developmental symbiosis and developmental plasticity into evolutionary theory1,2.
Developmental symbiosis is the concept that organisms are constructed, in part, by the interactions that occur between the host and its persistent symbiotic microorganisms. Although once thought to be exceptions to normal development, such developmental symbioses seem to be ubiquitous among plants and animals1,35. Recent studies document that developmentally
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