Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Table of Contents - April 2012 - Volume 35, Issue 02  

Open Peer Commentary

Condition-dependent adaptive phenotypic plasticity and interspecific gene-culture coevolution

Marion Blutea1

a1 Department of Sociology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Mississauga, ON L5L 1C6, Canada. marion.blute@utoronto.ca http://individual.utoronto.ca/marionblute/

Abstract

Evolutionary socioecological theory and research proposing linking parasites with human social organization is uncommon and therefore welcome. However, more generally, condition-dependent adaptive phenotypic plasticity requires environmental uncertainty on a small scale, accompanied by reliable cues. In addition, genes in parasites may select among biologically adaptive cultural alternatives directly without necessarily going through human genetic predispositions, resulting in inter-specific gene-culture coevolution.

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