摘要
An individual’s morphology is shaped by the environmental pressures it experiences,and the resulting morphological response is the culmination of both genetic factors and environmental(non-genetic)conditions experienced early in its life(i.e.phenotypic plasticity).The role that phenotypic plasticity plays in shaping phenotypes is important,but evidence for its influence is often mixed.We exposed female neonate diamond-backed watersnakes(Nerodia rhombifer)from populations experiencing different prey-size regimes to different feeding treatments to test the influence of phenotypic plasticity in shaping trophic morphology.We found that snakes in a large-prey treatment from a population frequently encountering large prey exhibited a higher growth rate in body size than individuals in a small-prey treatment from the same population.This pattern was not observed in snakes from a population that regularly encounters small prey.We also found that regardless of treatment,snakes from the smallprey population were smaller at birth than snakes from the large-prey population and remained so throughout the study.These results suggest that the ability to plastically respond to environmental pressures may be populationspecific.These results also indicate a genetic predisposition towards larger body sizes in a population where large prey items are more common.
基金
the use of their animal facilities.All methods were approved by the University of Central Arkansas Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee(protocol#14-006)
All collecting was approved by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission(permit#032520141).
