Genetic variability in reaction norms in fishes

The ability of populations to adapt to environmental change and the spatial scale at which this adaptation occurs are fundamentally important issues in evolutionary biology, and ones that may benefit greatly from the study of genetic variability in reaction norms, which represent the plasticity of phenotypic traits across an environmental gradient. Therefore variable reaction norms can reflect genetic differences in the ability of individuals, families, populations, and species to respond to natural and anthropogenic environmental change. Fishes are ideal organisms in which to study plasticity because of their remarkable intraspecific morphological, physiological, behavioural, and life history variation. Here, we review studies demonstrating genetic variability in reaction norms in fishes. Genetic variability in plasticity among full- and half-sib families suggests potential for some populations to develop an adaptive norm of reaction (recalling that plasticity need not be adaptive). Reaction norm variability among populations suggests that adaptive genetic divergence can occur rapidly when selection pressures are strong and that the spatial scale of adaptation is much smaller than previously believed for some species with high dispersal capabilities. These studies demonstrate the potential of using reaction norms to study the evolution of novel phenotypes and the influence of temporal environmental variability and gene flow on the evolution of phenotypic plasticity, which can then be used to predict how populations will respond to directional environmental change. To promote future research into genetic variability in reaction norms, we propose questions that would benefit from such an approach and discuss some important considerations for designing experiments to investigate questions related to genetic variation in plasticity and phenotypic evolution.