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Rapid Evolution and Behavioral Plasticity Following Introduction to an Environment with Reduced Predation Risk

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Rapid Evolution and Behavioral Plasticity Following Introduction to an Environment with Reduced Predation Risk Received: 30 August 2018 | Revised: 13 November 2018 | Accepted: 21 January 2019 DOI: 10.1111/eth.12849 RESEARCH PAPER Rapid evolution and behavioral plasticity following introduction to an environment with reduced predation risk Sarah E. Westrick1 | E. Dale Broder1 | David N. Reznick2 | Cameron K. Ghalambor1 | Lisa Angeloni1 1Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado Abstract 2Department of Biology, University of Adaptive behavioral plasticity can play a beneficial role when a population becomes California at Riverside, Riverside, California established in a novel environment if environmental cues allow the expression of ap‐ Correspondence propriate behavior. Further, plasticity itself can evolve over time in a new environ‐ Sarah E. Westrick, Department of ment causing changes in the way or degree to which animals respond to environmental Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. cues. Colonization events provide an opportunity to investigate such relationships Email: [email protected] between behavioral plasticity and adaptation to new environments. Here, we inves‐ Present Address tigated the evolution of behavior and behavioral plasticity during colonization of a E. Dale Broder, Biology Department, St. new environment, by testing if female mate‐choice behavior diverged in Trinidadian Ambrose University, Davenport, Iowa guppies 2–3 years (~6–9 generations) after being introduced to four locations with Funding information reduced predation risk. We collected wild‐caught fish from the source and intro‐ Division of Environmental Biology, Grant/ Award Number: DEB-0846175 and duced populations, and we reared out second‐generation females in the laboratory DEB‐1146489; Division of Integrative with and without predator cues to examine their plastic responses to a bright and dull Organismal Systems, Grant/Award Number: IOS-0920622, IOS-1457383; Division of male. We found introduced females were less responsive to males when reared with‐ Emerging Frontiers, Grant/Award Number: out predator cues, but both introduced and source females were similarly responsive EF‐0623632 when reared with predator cues. Thus, the parallel evolution of behavior across mul‐ tiple populations in the low‐predation environment was only observed in the treat‐ ment mimicking the introduction environment. Such results are consistent with theory predicting that the evolution of plasticity is a by‐product of differential selec‐ tion across environments. KEYWORDS behavioral plasticity, guppy, mate choice, Poecilia reticulata, predation risk, rapid evolution 1 | INTRODUCTION thought to initially create non‐heritable variation in the population that can later become genetically assimilated or accommodated as Colonization of new environments provides an opportunity to inves‐ a heritable trait in the derived populations (Badyaev, 2005; Levis tigate adaptation on contemporary timescales (Reznick & Ghalambor, & Pfennig, 2016; Schlichting, 2004; Waddington, 1942; West‐ 2001). Behavioral plasticity, or the capacity of a genotype to pro‐ Eberhard, 2003). Selection may also result in a derived population duce different behavioral phenotypes in response to environmental with a different degree of phenotypic plasticity than the ancestral conditions, is thought to be important in the process of contempo‐ state through a process known as genetic accommodation (West‐ rary adaptation (Foster, 2013; Ghalambor, Angeloni, & Carroll, 2010; Eberhard, 2003). In either case, the key assumption is that there is Wcislo, 1989; West‐Eberhard, 1989). Ancestral plasticity in a trait is genetic variation for plasticity in the ancestral population, such that 232 | © 2019 Blackwell Verlag GmbH wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/eth Ethology. 2019;125:232–240. WESTRICK et AL. | 233 selection has the opportunity to drive the evolution of plasticity cues of predation. We assessed the effect of this rearing environ‐ (Scheiner, 1993). However, new environments represent conditions ment on behavior in mate‐choice trials, as a measure of behavioral where selection has not previously had an opportunity to shape plasticity. We compared the source and introduced populations patterns of plasticity, making it complicated to predict the direction under these common garden conditions to determine whether fe‐ of evolution in plastic responses (Foster, 2013; Ghalambor, McKay, male mating behavior or behavioral plasticity evolved under reduced Carroll, & Reznick, 2007). predation risk. If adaptive plasticity in a source population allows the Plasticity in a source population may be adaptive when coloniz‐ expression of behavior adaptive to a new environment and shields ing a new environment, if past selective pressures allow individu‐ colonizing populations from selection in a new environment, then als to respond appropriately to environmental cues (Foster, 2013; we expected similar behavioral plasticity in source and introduced Ghalambor et al., 2010; Levis & Pfennig, 2016; West‐Eberhard, populations, and a lack of evolutionary change in behavior or its 1989). Such adaptive plasticity may facilitate local adaptation by plasticity (Ghalambor et al., 2007). If a lack of adaptive plasticity in allowing for population persistence and the opportunity for direc‐ a source population prevents it from behaving adaptively in a new tional selection to act on genetic variation (Foster, 2013; Ghalambor environment, then we expected behavior to evolve in the introduced et al., 2007; Levis & Pfennig, 2016). On the other hand, adaptive populations, potentially through an increase in plasticity (Lande, plasticity may constrain trait evolution by shielding heritable vari‐ 2015). ation and/or reducing the strength of directional selection (Foster, 2013; Ghalambor et al., 2010, 2007; Huey, Hertz, & Sinervo, 2003; 2 | MATERIAL AND METHODS West‐Eberhard, 1989). Plasticity itself can also evolve in response to new environments (Foster, 2013; Ghalambor et al., 2007; Levis & 2.1 | Study organisms and husbandry Pfennig, 2016; Shaw, Scotti, & Foster, 2007). For example, a popu‐ lation lacking adaptive plasticity may rapidly evolve increased plas‐ Females were laboratory‐reared guppies descending from five pop‐ ticity in a new environment that may allow it to achieve the new ulations in the Northern Range Mountains in Trinidad, West Indies, optimal phenotype (Lande, 2009, 2015). Empirical tests of how that were part of an experiment where guppies were transplanted behavioral plasticity influences adaptation in nature are limited be‐ from a high‐predation site (hereafter Source) to four low‐preda‐ cause few studies capture the genetic and environmental basis of tion tributaries within the drainage (Intros1–4; Handelsman et al., behavior during the early stages of population divergence. Here, we 2013; Travis et al., 2014). In March 2011, 3 years post‐introduction illustrate how colonization of an environment with reduced preda‐ for Intro1 and Intro2 and 2 years post‐introduction for Intro3 and tion risk can influence evolution and plasticity in mating behavior. Intro4, 40–50 juveniles collected from the source, and each intro‐ Predation risk has been shown to alter mate choice across a di‐ duction site were used to generate unique family lines and reared versity of taxa, causing females to be less responsive to males, invest under identical conditions for two generations in a common garden less in mate choice, and relax or reverse their preferences (Bonachea environment to minimize maternal and environmental effects (fol‐ & Ryan, 2011; Demary, Michaelidis, & Lewis, 2006; Forsgren, 1992; lowing Handelsman et al., 2013). Hedrick & Dill, 1993; Jennions & Petrie, 1997; Lima & Dill, 1990). Guppies collected from the high‐predation source population Trinidadian guppies, Poecilia reticulata, are known for exhibiting and the four introduced populations were maintained at Colorado a suite of behaviors that vary with predation risk (Godin & Briggs, State University in 1.5 L tanks connected to a custom‐made recir‐ 1996; Gong & Gibson, 1996; Houde, 1997). For example, female culating system. They were kept on a 12-hr light cycle at 27 ± 1°C guppies exhibit reduced preferences for colorful males in locations and were fed flake paste made from TetraMin© Tropical Flakes in the with greater predation risk and in the presence of predators (Endler morning and brine shrimp nauplii (Artemia spp.) in the evening, with & Houde, 1995; Godin & Briggs, 1996; Gong & Gibson, 1996; Houde, food quantities adjusted for age to approximate ad libitum levels 1997; Pocklington & Dill, 1995; Stoner & Breden, 1988), perhaps to (modified from Reznick, 1982). We separated wild‐caught juveniles reduce predation costs when searching for mates or mating, or to by sex once females could be distinguished by a triangular patch produce inconspicuous sons (Gong & Gibson, 1996; Pocklington & of melanophores on the ventral abdomen (~after 28 days of age; Dill, 1995; Schwartz & Hendry, 2007; Stoner & Breden, 1988). Thus, Reznick, 1982). Upon reaching maturity, each wild‐caught female if adaptive plasticity facilitates adaptive behavior, female guppies was randomly crossed with a single wild‐caught male to produce a that colonize environments with reduced predation risk should be G1 generation, which were then separated by sex, reared to maturity, more responsive to males and exhibit greater discrimination among and randomly crossed with unrelated G1 individuals to produce a G2 them, with stronger preferences for colorful males. generation. To investigate
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