Resurrecting the metabolome: Rapid evolution magnifies the metabolomic plasticity to predation in a natural Daphnia population

Populations rely on already present plastic responses (ancestral plasticity) and evolution (including both evolution of mean trait values, constitutive evolution, and evolution of plasticity) to adapt to novel environmental conditions. Because of the lack of evidence from natural populations, controversy remains regarding the interplay between ancestral plasticity and rapid evolution in driving responses to new stressors. We addressed this topic at the level of the metabolome utilizing a resurrected natural population of the water flea Daphnia magna that underwent a human-caused increase followed by a reduction in predation pressure within ~16 years. Predation risk induced plastic changes in the metabolome which were mainly related to shifts in amino acid and sugar metabolism, suggesting predation risk affected protein and sugar utilization to increase energy supply. Both the constitutive and plastic components of the metabolic profiles showed rapid, likely adaptive evolution whereby an...

种群依赖已存在的塑性响应——即祖先可塑性（ancestral plasticity）——与演化过程（涵盖性状均值演化、组成型演化（constitutive evolution）以及可塑性演化两类），以适应全新的环境条件。由于目前缺乏来自自然种群的相关实证数据，学界关于祖先可塑性与快速演化在驱动生物响应新型胁迫因子过程中的相互作用仍存在争议。本研究以代谢组（metabolome）为分析维度，针对该科学问题展开研究：研究对象为一具复活的大型溞（Daphnia magna，俗称水蚤）自然种群，该种群在约16年的时间里经历了人为活动导致的捕食压力先升高后降低的过程。研究结果显示，捕食风险可诱导代谢组发生塑性变化，此类变化主要与氨基酸及糖代谢的重编程相关，表明捕食风险通过调控蛋白质与糖的利用以提升能量供给。代谢谱的组成型组分与塑性组分均展现出快速演化特征，且该演化大概率具有适应性，具体而言，该演化通过……