Transgenerational Plasticity in Human-Altered Environments

Sarah C Donelan; Jennifer K Hellmann; Alison M Bell; Barney Luttbeg; John L Orrock; Michael J Sheriff; Andrew Sih

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2019.09.003

Transgenerational Plasticity in Human-Altered Environments

Trends Ecol Evol. 2020 Feb;35(2):115-124. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2019.09.003. Epub 2019 Nov 6.

Authors

Sarah C Donelan¹, Jennifer K Hellmann², Alison M Bell³, Barney Luttbeg⁴, John L Orrock⁵, Michael J Sheriff⁶, Andrew Sih⁷

Affiliations

¹ Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 647 Contees Wharf Road, Edgewater, MD 21037, USA.
² Department of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, Program in Neuroscience, Program in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, 505 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. Electronic address: hellmann@illinois.edu.
³ Department of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, Program in Neuroscience, Program in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, 505 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
⁴ Department of Integrative Biology, 501 Life Sciences West, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA.
⁵ Department of Integrative Biology, 145 Noland Hall, 250 North Mills Street, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
⁶ Biology Department, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Dartmouth, MA 02747, USA.
⁷ Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA.

Abstract

Our ability to predict how species will respond to human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC) may depend upon our understanding of transgenerational plasticity (TGP), which occurs when environments experienced by previous generations influence phenotypes of subsequent generations. TGP evolved to help organisms cope with environmental stressors when parental environments are highly predictive of offspring environments. HIREC can alter conditions that favored TGP in historical environments by reducing parents' ability to detect environmental conditions, disrupting previous correlations between parental and offspring environments, and interfering with the transmission of parental cues to offspring. Because of the propensity to produce errors in these processes, TGP will likely generate negative fitness outcomes in response to HIREC, though beneficial fitness outcomes may occur in some cases.

Keywords: HIREC; climate change; human-induced rapid environmental change; maternal effects; parental effects; phenotypic plasticity.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Biological Evolution*
Environment
Genetic Fitness*
Human Activities
Humans
Phenotype

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding