Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Similar genotypic changes may result in similar phenotypic alterations, even across a wide range of species. [1] The genotype–phenotype distinction is drawn in genetics. The "genotype" is an organism's full hereditary information. The "phenotype" is an organism's actual observed properties, such as morphology, development, or behavior.
Phenotypic plasticity refers to some of the changes in an organism's behavior, morphology and physiology in response to a unique environment. [1] [2] Fundamental to the way in which organisms cope with environmental variation, phenotypic plasticity encompasses all types of environmentally induced changes (e.g. morphological, physiological, behavioural, phenological) that may or may not be ...
A mechanism has been proposed for the evolutionary development of polyphenisms: [7] A mutation results in a novel, heritable trait. The trait's frequency expands in the population, creating a population on which selection can act. Pre-existing (background) genetic variation in other genes results in phenotypic differences in expression of the ...
Phenotypic or developmental plasticity is the alteration of development through environmental factors. [2] These factors can induce multiple types of variants that increase the fitness of an organism based on the environment they are in. These alterations can be for defense, predation, sex determination, and sexual selection. [2]
The Baldwin effect has been confused with, and sometimes conflated with, a different evolutionary theory also based on phenotypic plasticity, C. H. Waddington's genetic assimilation. The Baldwin effect includes genetic accommodation, of which one type is genetic assimilation. [28]
But differing genotypes within a single species may also show differing reaction norms relative to a particular phenotypic trait and environment variable. For every genotype, phenotypic trait, and environmental variable, a different reaction norm can exist; in other words, an enormous complexity can exist in the interrelationships between ...
[4] [3] However, during developmental periods, synaptic plasticity is of particular importance, as changes in the network of synaptic connections can ultimately lead to changes in developmental milestones. For instance, the initial overproduction of synapses during development is key to plasticity that occurs in the visual and auditory cortices ...
Genetic architecture is incredibly important for understanding evolutionary theory because it describes phenotypic variation in its underlying genetic terms, and thus it gives us clues about the evolutionary potential of these variations. Therefore, genetic architecture can help us to answer biological questions about speciation, the evolution ...