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First published online May 26, 2006
Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 2362-2367 (2006)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2006
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02070

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Review Article: Phenotypic Plasticity in Evolution

Phenotypic plasticity and evolution by genetic assimilation

Massimo Pigliucci^1,*, Courtney J. Murren² and Carl D. Schlichting³

¹ Department of Ecology and Evolution, SUNY-Stony Brook, 650 Life Science Building, Stony Brook NY 11794, USA
² Department of Biology, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC 29424, USA
³ Department of Ecology Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: pigliucci{at}genotypbyenvironment.org)

Accepted 3 January 2006

Summary

In addition to considerable debate in the recent evolutionary literature about the limits of the Modern Synthesis of the 1930s and 1940s, there has also been theoretical and empirical interest in a variety of new and not so new concepts such as phenotypic plasticity, genetic assimilation and phenotypic accommodation. Here we consider examples of the arguments and counter-arguments that have shaped this discussion. We suggest that much of the controversy hinges on several misunderstandings, including unwarranted fears of a general attempt at overthrowing the Modern Synthesis paradigm, and some fundamental conceptual confusion about the proper roles of phenotypic plasticity and natural selection within evolutionary theory.

Key words: phenotypic plasticity, genetic assimilation, phenotypic accommodation, Modern Synthesis, natural selection, evolution

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PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY

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JEB 2006 209: i. [Full Text]  

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