Life history and morphological traits of Lestes sponsa

Phenotypic plasticity can either hinder or promote adaptation to novel environments. Recent studies that have quantified alignments between plasticity, genetic variation and divergence propose that such alignments may reflect constraints that bias future evolutionary trajectories. Here, we emphasize that such alignments may themselves be a result of natural selection and do not necessarily indicate constraints on adaptation. We estimated developmental plasticity and broad sense genetic covariance matrices (G) among damselfly populations situated along a latitudinal gradient in Europe. Damselflies were reared at photoperiod treatments that simulated the seasonal time constraints experienced at northern (strong constraints) and southern (relaxed constraints) latitudes. This allowed us to partition the effects of (1) latitude, (2) photoperiod and (3) environmental novelty on G and its putative alignment with adaptive plasticity and divergence. Environmental novelty and latitude did not aff...表型可塑性（Phenotypic plasticity）既可能阻碍也可促进生物对新环境的适应。近期针对可塑性、遗传变异与分化间关联开展定量分析的研究提出，这类关联或反映了会偏向未来演化轨迹的演化约束。本文强调，这类关联本身或许是自然选择的产物，未必代表适应过程受到约束。我们针对欧洲沿纬度梯度分布的豆娘种群，估算了其发育可塑性（developmental plasticity）与广义遗传协方差矩阵（broad sense genetic covariance matrices，记作G）。我们将豆娘置于模拟不同纬度季节时间约束的光周期处理条件下饲养：其中北部纬度的季节时间约束较强，南部纬度的约束较弱。借此我们得以拆解（1）纬度、（2）光周期与（3）环境新奇性对G矩阵及其与适应性可塑性、分化间潜在关联的影响。环境新奇性与纬度并未对...