Project 5
The role of developmental plasticity in innovation and diversification of Onthophagus beetles

Led by Armin Moczek & Emile Snell-Rood

This projects tests how evolutionary innovation, or the development of novel phenotypic variation, is affected by developmental processes and ecological conditions. Using the well-established dung beetle model, Onthophagus, we are testing the prediction that plasticity biases the evolution of morphological and life-history traits.

Publications

Adaptive maternal behavioral plasticity and developmental programming mitigate the transgenerational effects of temperature in dung beetles.
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Macagno ALM, Zattara EE, Ezeakudo O, Moczek AP, Ledón‐Rettig CC. 2018. Oikos DOI: 10.1111/oik.05215.
 
The role of ancestral phenotypic plasticity in evolutionary diversification: population density effects in horned beetles.
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Casasa S, Moczek AP. 2018. Animal Behaviour 137:53-61.
 
Signals of selection in conditionally expressed genes in the diversification of three horned beetle species.
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Pespeni MH, Ladner JT, Moczek AP. 2017. J Evol Biol 10.1111/jeb.13079.

Blog posts

Behavioral and developmental plasticity enable dung beetles to cope with temperature stress within and across generations
Macagno ALM, Zattara EE, Moczek AP, Ledón-Rettig CC. 23 April 2018.

Español: La plasticidad de comportamiento y desarrollo de los escarabajos estercoleros les permite sobrellevar el estrés térmico a través de las generaciones
Deutsch: Plastizität im Verhalten und der Entwicklung ermöglicht es Mistkäfern mit stressvollen Temperaturen umzugehen, sowohl innerhalb einer Generation als auch darüber hinaus
Italiano: La plasticità comportamentale e di sviluppo consentono agli scarabei stercorari di far fronte allo stress termico nel corso di generazioni
 
Rapid evolution and phenotypic plasticity: insights from horned beetles
Casasa S, Moczek AP. 16 April 2018.
 
What functional ectopic compound eyes can teach us about the role of context in development and evolution
Zattara EE, Moczek AP. 25 October 2017.
 
Conditional gene expression, developmental plasticity, and the diversification of horned beetles
Moczek AP. 21 July 2017.

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
v. repeated evolution in isolated populations may be due to convergent selection and/or developmental bias