Vegetative Phase Change Causes Age-Dependent Changes in Phenotypic Plasticity

Abstract

O_LIPhenotypic plasticity allows organisms to optimize traits for their environment. As organisms age, they experience diverse environments that benefit from varying degrees of phenotypic plasticity. Developmental transitions can control these age-dependent changes in plasticity and as such, the timing of these transitions can determine when plasticity changes in an organism. C_LIO_LIHere we investigate how the transition from juvenile-to adult-vegetative development known as vegetative phase change (VPC) contributes to age-dependent changes in phenotypic plasticity and how the timing of this transition responds to environment using both natural accessions and mutant lines in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. C_LIO_LIWe found that the adult phase of vegetative development has greater plasticity in leaf morphology than the juvenile phase and confirmed that this difference in plasticity is caused by VPC using mutant lines. Further, we found that the timing of VPC, and therefore the time when increased plasticity is acquired, varies significantly across genotypes and environments. C_LIO_LIThe consistent age-dependent changes in plasticity caused by VPC suggest that VPC may be adaptive. This genetic and environmental variation in the timing of VPC indicates the potential for population-level adaptive evolution of VPC. C_LI