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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 ...
In contrast to phenotypic plasticity, the concept of genetic canalization addresses the extent to which an organism's phenotype allows conclusions about its genotype. A phenotype is said to be canalized if mutations (changes in the genome) do not noticeably affect the physical properties of the organism.
Bacterial morphological plasticity refers to changes in the shape and size that bacterial cells undergo when they encounter stressful environments. Although bacteria have evolved complex molecular strategies to maintain their shape, many are able to alter their shape as a survival strategy in response to protist predators, antibiotics, the immune response, and other threats.
The Baldwin effect only posits that learning ability, which is genetically based, is another variable in / contributor to environmental adaptation. First proposed during the Eclipse of Darwinism in the late 19th century, this effect has been independently proposed several times, and today it is generally recognized as part of the modern synthesis .
An ecotype refers to organisms which belong to the same species but have different phenotypical characteristics as a result of their adaptations to different habitats. [6] Differences between these two groups is attributed to phenotypic plasticity and are too few for them to be termed as wholly different species. [ 7 ]
In ecology and genetics, a reaction norm, also called a norm of reaction, describes the pattern of phenotypic expression of a single genotype across a range of environments. One use of reaction norms is in describing how different species—especially related species—respond to varying environments.
Variability can be classified into two categories: modulating phenotypic variation and modulating the phenotypes that are produced. [26] The presence of this so-called bias in genetic variability allows us to gain further insights into how certain phenotypes are more successful in terms of their actual morphology, biochemical makeup, or ...
Adaptations are traits that increase fitness, the driving force for natural selection. The level of fitness associated with an allele can only be ascertained by comparison with alternate alleles. Traits that increase the survival rate of a species contribute to an animal's fitness, but selection will only favor such traits insofar as survival ...