Jones CB (February, 2008) Ethology, neuroethology, and evolvability in vertebrates: a brief review and prospectus. Primate Report 75: 41-61.
Abstract: The implications of recent developments in cellular and developmental biology are discussed for vertebrate ethology, describing behavior as neuromuscular elements with the potential to generate non-lethal phenotypic novelty induced by environmental stimuli (evolvability). I present a modified schema of a recent model for the origin of adaptive phenotypic novelties. Behavioral accommodation is hypothesized to lead to genetic accommodation if recurrence of environmental effects upon biochemical pathways of novel genetically correlated neuromuscular elements enhances survival and/or reproduction, I review, discuss, and interpret findings which have been implicated in neural plasticity and subsequent reorganization of the phenotype (e.g., "trial-and-error" learning), emphasizing, in particular, the importance of hypervariable exploratory systems. It is suggested that hypervariable neuromuscular elements and subsequent phenotypic plasticity may be induced by long-term potentiation (LTP), potentially deconstraining conserved action patterns and exposing novel patterns of response to selection. The idea that the phenotype is a heterogeneous landscape of neuromuscular elements varying in function from selfish, including parasitic, to mutualistic is proposed, and I suggest that conflict may be ubiquitous, enhancing the potential for deconstraint. A simple theoretical treatment is applied to my proposal that semi-autonomous, antagonistic transposable behavioral elements (TBE) may parasitize one another within and between individuals, inducing hypervariability. I suggest topics for future research, in particular, the role of environmental stressors as inducers of hypervariability and evolutionary adaptability.
Background Reference
Kirschner M, Gerhart J (1998) Evolvability. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA 95: 8420-8427.
Abstract: The implications of recent developments in cellular and developmental biology are discussed for vertebrate ethology, describing behavior as neuromuscular elements with the potential to generate non-lethal phenotypic novelty induced by environmental stimuli (evolvability). I present a modified schema of a recent model for the origin of adaptive phenotypic novelties. Behavioral accommodation is hypothesized to lead to genetic accommodation if recurrence of environmental effects upon biochemical pathways of novel genetically correlated neuromuscular elements enhances survival and/or reproduction, I review, discuss, and interpret findings which have been implicated in neural plasticity and subsequent reorganization of the phenotype (e.g., "trial-and-error" learning), emphasizing, in particular, the importance of hypervariable exploratory systems. It is suggested that hypervariable neuromuscular elements and subsequent phenotypic plasticity may be induced by long-term potentiation (LTP), potentially deconstraining conserved action patterns and exposing novel patterns of response to selection. The idea that the phenotype is a heterogeneous landscape of neuromuscular elements varying in function from selfish, including parasitic, to mutualistic is proposed, and I suggest that conflict may be ubiquitous, enhancing the potential for deconstraint. A simple theoretical treatment is applied to my proposal that semi-autonomous, antagonistic transposable behavioral elements (TBE) may parasitize one another within and between individuals, inducing hypervariability. I suggest topics for future research, in particular, the role of environmental stressors as inducers of hypervariability and evolutionary adaptability.
Background Reference
Kirschner M, Gerhart J (1998) Evolvability. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA 95: 8420-8427.