A2 Refereed review article in a scientific journal
Towards an Evolutionary Theory of Stress Responses
Authors: Taborsky Barbara, English Sinead, Fawcett Tim W, Kuijper Bram, Leimar Olof, McNamara John M, Ruuskanen Suvi, Sandi Carmen
Publisher: Elsevier Ltd
Publication year: 2021
Journal: Trends in Ecology and Evolution
Journal name in source: Trends in Ecology and Evolution
Volume: 36
Issue: 1
First page : 39
Last page: 48
Number of pages: 10
ISSN: 0169-5347
eISSN: 1872-8383
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2020.09.003(external)
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/handle/10871/122712(external)
Extensive experimental and comparative studies provide a solid understanding of the physiological basis of the stress response system and its variation across and within species.
However, lagging behind this is a formal theoretical framework to help unify the wealth of existing verbal hypotheses linking stress response mechanisms and fitness, and to explain how such a response system has evolved.
We propose an evo-mecho approach, combining optimality models and evolutionary simulations with empirical evidence about the underlying physiology, to show how mechanistic constraints and the predictability of environmental risks shape the stress response.
A deeper understanding of stress response evolution will require mechanistically informed evolutionary models, phylogenetically controlled comparative analyses, and experimental evolution studies.