Is within- and trans-generational plasticity adaptive?

Nature is variable and organisms’ ability to cope with this variability is critical for adaptation and population subsistence.

While stable environments select for fixed genetic strategies, environmental variability selects for non-genetic responses.

A first response is within-generation phenotypic plasticity, which is the ability of one genotype to express different phenotypes in different environments.

A second response is trans-generational plasticity, such as maternal and epigenetic effects, which can evolve as adaptive responses to environmental variability.However, while theory and empirical work assumes that non-genetic effects are adaptive, and could aid adaptation, recent findings challenge these assumptions.

Maladaptive plasticity is common in gene expression studies and evidence for adaptive trans-generational plasticity is surprisingly limited.

Moreover, maladaptive plasticity may also aid adaptation, contrary to predictions from classical theory.My overall aim is to investigate the prevalence and importance of adaptive within- and trans-generational plasticity, using the nematode worms Caenorhabditis elegans and C. remanei.

In C. elegans I can use genetic knockouts to manipulate trans-generational plasticity and validate candidate genes regulating within-generation plasticity.

By combining this with experimental evolution, phenotypic and gene expression assays in the outcrossing C. remanei, I will address fundamental key questions in this domain.