Project 8
Plasticity and house building in social insects

Led by Graeme Ruxton

Photo by Jared Belson

This project uses mathematical modelling to investigate the role of developmental plasticity in the evolution of insect nest-building behaviour. We are contrasting constructive (EES) and programmed (traditional) conceptions of development by exploring (i) the importance of plasticity in building rules, and (ii) the extent to which the complete insect construction can be understood in terms of activities responsive only to local conditions in a part of the structure (e.g. light, oxygen or carbon-dioxide levels), as opposed to the final form being genetically specified.

EES predictions this project tests

i. phenotypic accommodation can precede, rather than follow, genetic change, in adaptive evolution
ii. novel phenotypic variants will frequently be directional and functional
iii. novel, evolutionarily consequential, phenotypic variants will frequently be environmentally induced in multiple individuals
iv. strikingly different novel phenotypes can occur, either through mutation of a major regulatory control gene expressed in a tissue-specific manner, or through facilitated variation
ix. heritable variation will be systematically biased towards variants that are adaptive and well-integrated with existing aspects of the phenotype