phenotypic plasticity

Compiled with AI assistance and selectively reviewed. Please consult the cited passages; the books remain the authoritative source. About this companion

Editorial synthesis · provisional

Definition

Phenotypic plasticity is an organism’s capacity to change morphology, physiology or behavior in response to environmental conditions. RB1 distinguishes this developmental responsiveness from a DNA-sequence change and, through West-Eberhard, allows environmentally induced change to precede later genetic accommodation or assimilation. Plasticity can shape the variation on which selection acts, but does not guarantee that an acquired response becomes genetically inherited or adaptively beneficial.

Explanation

The Extended Synthesis discussion treats development as an active contributor to the variants that appear. Its plasticity example concerns altered expression or organization under conditions, rather than a predetermined supply of all imaginable forms. The neighboring developmental-bias claim concerns unequal accessibility of variants and should not simply replace the response-to-environment definition.

West-Eberhard’s sequence is explicitly conditional: phenotypic change may precede genetic change, and assimilation occurs in some cases. The proposed entry retains that attribution without equating every learned or environmentally induced trait with a new inherited DNA sequence. RB2’s Baldwin-effect discussion supplies a related route through altered selection pressures.

RB2 also uses neural plasticity in learning and prediction, a specific developmental application rather than automatically an evolutionary inheritance mechanism. Across these uses, the relevant distinction is between responsiveness during a life, changes in selection conditions and what is transmitted across generations.

Scope and attribution

Retain the conditional transition from environmental responsiveness to possible later genetic change.

RB1 — The Real Book, Volume I: The Possible Is Real

Environment-responsive form and behavior are distinguished from subsequent genetic accommodation or assimilation.

Occurrence locators: 147, 150, 152, 154.

RB2 — The Real Book, Volume II: Becoming Is Being

Neural plasticity and the Baldwin-effect comparison retain different temporal and causal scopes.

Occurrence locators: 21, 106, 133, 271.

Background used in the editorial explanation

Named theories and mechanisms are distinguished from neighboring background, homonyms and the author’s own synthesis. Reproduced AI passages retain their separate voice.