Social structure modulates the evolutionary consequences of social plasticity: A social network perspective on interacting phenotypes |
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| Authors: | Pierre‐Olivier Montiglio Joel W McGlothlin Damien R Farine |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Biology & Redpath Museum, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada;2. Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA;3. Department of Collective Behaviour, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Konstanz, Germany;4. Department of Biology, Chair of Biodiversity and Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany;5. Department of Zoology, Edward Grey Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK |
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| Abstract: | Organisms express phenotypic plasticity during social interactions. Interacting phenotype theory has explored the consequences of social plasticity for evolution, but it is unclear how this theory applies to complex social structures. We adapt interacting phenotype models to general social structures to explore how the number of social connections between individuals and preference for phenotypically similar social partners affect phenotypic variation and evolution. We derive an analytical model that ignores phenotypic feedback and use simulations to test the predictions of this model. We find that adapting previous models to more general social structures does not alter their general conclusions but generates insights into the effect of social plasticity and social structure on the maintenance of phenotypic variation and evolution. Contribution of indirect genetic effects to phenotypic variance is highest when interactions occur at intermediate densities and decrease at higher densities, when individuals approach interacting with all group members, homogenizing the social environment across individuals. However, evolutionary response to selection tends to increase at greater network densities as the effects of an individual's genes are amplified through increasing effects on other group members. Preferential associations among similar individuals (homophily) increase both phenotypic variance within groups and evolutionary response to selection. Our results represent a first step in relating social network structure to the expression of social plasticity and evolutionary responses to selection. |
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| Keywords: | evolution quantitative genetics social interactions social network social plasticity |
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