The Role of Sex-specific Plasticity in Shaping Sexual Dimorphism in a Long-lived Vertebrate, the Snapping Turtle Chelydra serpentina

被引:44
作者
Ceballos, Claudia Patricia [1 ]
Valenzuela, Nicole [1 ]
机构
[1] Iowa State Univ, Dept Ecol Evolut & Organismal Biol, Ames, IA 50011 USA
基金
美国国家科学基金会;
关键词
Phenotypic plasticity; Condition-dependence; Adaptive canalization; Sexual dimorphism; Chelydra serpentina; SIZE DIMORPHISM; BODY-SIZE; PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY; INCUBATION TEMPERATURES; HATCHLING TURTLES; WATER STRIDER; GROWING APART; GROWTH; SELECTION; EVOLUTION;
D O I
10.1007/s11692-011-9117-8
中图分类号
Q [生物科学];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
Sex-specific plasticity, the differential response that the genome of males and females may have to different environments, is a mechanism that can affect the degree of sexual dimorphism. Two adaptive hypotheses have been proposed to explain how sex-specific plasticity affects the evolution of sexual size dimorphism. The adaptive canalization hypothesis states that the larger sex exhibits lesser plasticity compared to the smaller sex due to strong directional selection for a large body size, which penalizes individuals attaining sub-optimal body sizes. The condition-dependence hypothesis states that the larger sex exhibits greater plasticity than the smaller sex due to strong directional selection for a large body size favoring a greater sensitivity as an opportunistic mechanism for growth enhancement under favorable conditions. While the relationship between sex-specific plasticity and sexual dimorphism has been studied mainly in invertebrates, its role in long-lived vertebrates has received little attention. In this study we tested the predictions derived from these two hypotheses by comparing the plastic responses of body size and shape of males and females of the snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) raised under common garden conditions. Body size was plastic, sexually dimorphic, and the plasticity was also sex-specific, with males exhibiting greater body size plasticity relative to females. Because snapping turtle males are larger than females, sexual size dimorphism in this species appears to be driven by an increased plasticity of the larger sex over the smaller sex as predicted by the condition-dependent hypothesis. However, male body size was enhanced under relatively limited resources, in contrast to expectations from this model. Body shape was also plastic and sexually dimorphic, however no sex by environment interaction was found in this case. Instead, plasticity of sexual shape dimorphism seems to evolve in parallel for males and females as both sexes responded similarly to different environments.
引用
收藏
页码:163 / 181
页数:19
相关论文
共 92 条
[1]   A comparative analysis of allometry for sexual size dimorphism: Assessing Rensch's rule [J].
Abouheif, E ;
Fairbairn, DJ .
AMERICAN NATURALIST, 1997, 149 (03) :540-562
[2]  
Ackerman Ralph A., 2008, P135
[3]   Morphometrics and phylogenetics: Principal components of shape from cranial modules are neither appropriate nor effective cladistic characters [J].
Adams, D. C. ;
Cardini, A. ;
Monteiro, L. R. ;
O'Higgins, P. ;
Rohlf, F. J. .
JOURNAL OF HUMAN EVOLUTION, 2011, 60 (02) :240-243
[4]  
Anderson MJ, 2001, AUSTRAL ECOL, V26, P32, DOI 10.1111/j.1442-9993.2001.01070.pp.x
[5]  
Andersson Malte, 1994
[6]  
[Anonymous], 1998, AM J PHYS ANTHR
[7]   Effect of food level and rearing temperature on burst speed and muscle composition of Western Spadefoot Toad (Spea hammondii) [J].
Arendt, J ;
Hoang, L .
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY, 2005, 19 (06) :982-987
[8]   The cellular basis for phenotypic plasticity of body size in Western Spadefoot toad (Spea hammondi) tadpoles:: patterns of cell growth and recruitment in response to food and temperature manipulations [J].
Arendt, JD .
BIOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, 2006, 88 (03) :499-510
[9]   Growing apart: an ontogenetic perspective on the evolution of sexual size dimorphism [J].
Badyaev, AV .
TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION, 2002, 17 (08) :369-378
[10]  
Bates D., 2009, Mixed-Effects Models in S and S-PLUS