Data from: You can’t have it all: heritability and constraints of predator-induced developmental plasticity in a Neotropical treefrog

Many organisms have evolved phenotypic plasticity but examples of a
heritable genetic basis or genetic constraints for plasticity across
environments remain scarce. Tadpoles of the Neotropical treefrog
Dendropsophus ebraccatus alter tail coloration and shape differently in
response to fish or aquatic insect predators. To assess the genetic basis
of plasticity we raised 1020 tadpoles from 17 maternal half-sib pairs (34
unique families) individually with chemical cues of fish or aquatic
insects, or with cue-free control water. We used Bayesian animal models to
estimate narrow sense heritability of morphology and cross-trait genetic
correlations in all three treatments, heritability of plasticity in
response to each predator, and genetic correlations between responses to
fish and insects. Families showed remarkably different responses to
predators and heritability was often high (0.45–0.75), as was heritability
of plasticity itself (0.42–0.62). We detected strong negative genetic
correlations for responses to each predator (-0.45 and -0.59), providing
clear evidence of a limit to plasticity. Most importantly, we show that
prey genotypes are constrained in their capacity to respond to different
types of predators, which likely maintains genetic variation for
plasticity in a temporally and spatially variable landscape where there is
no single adaptive peak.