Phenotypic plasticity refers to some of the changes in an organism's behavior, morphology and physiology in response to a unique environment. Fundamental to the way in which organisms cope with environmental variation, phenotypic plasticity encompasses all types of environmentally induced changes (e.g. morphological, physiological, behavioural, phenological) that may or may not be permanent throughout an individual's lifespan.
The term was originally used to describe developmental effects on morphological characters, but is now more broadly used to describe all phenotypic responses to environmental change, such as acclimation (acclimatization), as well as learning. The special case when differences in environment induce discrete phenotypes is termed polyphenism.
Generally, phenotypic plasticity is more important for immobile organisms (e.g. plants) than mobile organisms (e.g. most animals), as mobile organisms can often move away from unfavourable environments. Nevertheless, mobile organisms also have at least some degree of plasticity in at least some aspects of the phenotype. One mobile organism with substantial phenotypic plasticity is Acyrthosiphon pisum of the aphid family, which exhibits the ability to interchange between asexual and sexual reproduction, as well as growing wings between generations when plants become too populated. Water fleas (Daphnia magna) have shown both phenotypic plasticity and the ability to genetically evolve to deal with the heat stress of warmer, urban pond waters.
Method of Phenotypic Plasticity New traits start as flexible responses from a previously fixed trait. This flexibility can arise from environmental changes or mutations. Environmental cues will trigger developmental switches, which will lead to the expression of different traits. These traits are expressed independently in different individuals. Because they are independent, natural selection can act upon them, which will lead to more diverse traits and adaptation. This process is known as genetic accommodation. In the final step, the flexibility is eventually lost through assimilation or canalization. The trait becomes fixed within the genome and is no longer sensitive to the environment.
Examples
Plants
Phenotypic plasticity in plants includes the timing of transition from vegetative to reproductive growth stage, the allocation of more resources to the roots in soils that contain low concentrations of nutrients, the size of the seeds an individual produces depending on the environment, and the alteration of leaf shape, size, and thickness. Leaves are particularly plastic, and their growth may be altered by light levels. Leaves grown in the light tend to be thicker, which maximizes photosynthesis in direct light; and have a smaller area, which cools the leaf more rapidly (due to a thinner boundary layer). Conversely, leaves grown in the shade tend to be thinner, with a greater surface area to capture more of the limited light. Dandelion are well known for exhibiting considerable plasticity in form when growing in sunny versus shaded environments. The transport proteins present in roots also change depending on the concentration of the nutrient and the salinity of the soil. Some plants, Mesembryanthemum crystallinum for example, are able to alter their photosynthetic pathways to use less water when they become water- or salt-stressed.
Because of phenotypic plasticity, it is hard to explain and predict the traits when plants are grown in natural conditions unless an explicit environment index can be obtained to quantify environments. Identification of such explicit environment indices from critical growth periods being highly correlated with sorghum and rice flowering time enables such predictions. Additional work is being done to support the agricultural industry, which faces severe challenges in prediction of crop phenotypic expression in changing environments. Since many crops supporting the global food supply are grown in a wide variety of environments, understanding and ability to predict crop genotype by environment interaction will be essential for future food stability. In 2026, a study published in Cell illustrated how differential phenotypic plasticity in gene responses to environmental conditions can shape plant adaptation.
Phytohormones and leaf plasticity
Leaves are very important to a plant in that they create an avenue where photosynthesis and thermoregulation can occur. Evolutionarily, the environmental contribution to leaf shape allowed for a myriad of different types of leaves to be created. Leaf shape can be determined by both genetics and the environment. Environmental factors, such as light and humidity, have been shown to affect leaf morphology, giving rise to the question of how this shape change is controlled at the molecular level. This means that different leaves could have the same gene but present a different form based on environmental factors. Plants are sessile, so this phenotypic plasticity allows the plant to take in information from its environment and respond without changing its location.
In order to understand how leaf morphology works, the anatomy of a leaf must be understood. The main part of the leaf, the blade or lamina, consists of the epidermis, mesophyll, and vascular tissue. The epidermis contains stomata which allows for gas exchange and controls perspiration of the plant. The mesophyll contains most of the chloroplast where photosynthesis can occur. Developing a wide blade/lamina can maximize the amount of light hitting the leaf, thereby increasing photosynthesis, however too much sunlight can damage the plant. Wide lamina can also catch wind easily which can cause stress to the plant, so finding a happy medium is imperative to the plants' fitness. The Genetic Regulatory Network is responsible for creating this phenotypic plasticity and involves a variety of genes and proteins regulating leaf morphology. Phytohormones have been shown to play a key role in signaling throughout the plant, and changes in concentration of the phytohormones can cause a change in development.
Studies on the aquatic plant species Ludwigia arcuata have been done to look at the role of abscisic acid (ABA), as L. arcuata is known to exhibit phenotypic plasticity and has two different types of leaves, the aerial type (leaves that touch the air) and the submerged type (leaves that are underwater). When adding ABA to the underwater shoots of L. arcuata, the plant was able to produce aerial type leaves underwater, suggesting that increased concentrations of ABA in the shoots, likely caused by air contact or a lack of water, triggers the change from the submerged type of leaf to the aerial type. This suggests ABA's role in leaf phenotypic change and its importance in regulating stress through environmental change (such as adapting from being underwater to above water). In the same study, another phytohormone, ethylene, was shown to induce the submerged leaf phenotype unlike ABA, which induced aerial leaf phenotype. Because ethylene is a gas, it tends to stay endogenously within the plant when underwater – this growth in concentration of ethylene induces a change from aerial to submerged leaves and has also been shown to inhibit ABA production, further increasing the growth of submerged type leaves. These factors (temperature, water availability, and phytohormones) contribute to changes in leaf morphology throughout a plants lifetime and are vital to maximize plant fitness.
Animals The developmental effects of nutrition and temperature have been demonstrated. The gray wolf (Canis lupus) has wide phenotypic plasticity.Miklosi, Adam. Dog Behaviour, Evolution, and Cognition. 2007 Oxford University Press, Chapter 11.3 Additionally, male speckled wood butterflies have two morphs: one with three dots on its hindwing, and one with four dots on its hindwings. The development of the fourth dot is dependent on environmental conditions – more specifically, location and the time of year. In amphibians, the mutable rain frog (Pristimantis mutabilis) has remarkable phenotypic plasticity, as does the red-eyed tree frog (Agalychnis callidryas), whose embryos exhibit phenotypic plasticity by hatching early to protect themselves in response to egg disturbance. Another example is the southern rockhopper penguin. Rockhopper penguins are present at a variety of climates and locations; Amsterdam Island's subtropical waters, Kerguelen Archipelago and Crozet Archipelago's subantarctic coastal waters. Due to the species plasticity they are able to express different strategies and foraging behaviors depending on the climate and environment. A main factor that has influenced the species' behavior is where food is located.
Fish Fish exhibit phenotypic plasticity by altering their physical traits in response to environmental changes. This allows them to gain fitness and reproductive success. In the northern swordtail fish (Xiphophorus multilineatus), the females invest in reproduction. The females adjust their investment in eggs based on the attractiveness of their mate. A physical change of the male fish is described as a "courter" male. These courters are bigger and are preferred by the females. The males have a higher reproductive success rate because the females prefer them, and their size limits competition with other males. The strength of female preference for courters grow with female size and age, which influence the male mating success.
Another morphological trait that the male swordtail fish can exhibit is described as a "sneaker" male. These fish are significantly smaller than the courter males. Because sneaker males are smaller than courters, they reach sexual maturity faster to increase the probability of reproduction. Instead of courting, they gain fertilizations by sneaking copulations. Sneakers secretly fertilize eggs while the courter males are distracted courting a female.
The courter versus sneaker traits in males are inherited from the father or the Y-chromosome. The sons of sneaker males will develop into sneaker males.
Phenotypic plasticity can sometimes mimic genetic speciation, complicating taxonomic inventories. For example, different phylogenetic lineages of the common roach (Rutilus rutilus) are capable of independently forming a distinct characteristic "molluscivorous" morph in response to specific ecological pressures (such as the invasion of zebra mussels). This demonstrates that the tendency toward specific morphogenesis can be a shared ancestral trait, and morphological divergence does not always warrant the delineation of new evolutionary lineages.
Temperature Plastic responses to temperature are essential among ectothermic organisms, as all aspects of their physiology are directly dependent on their thermal environment. As such, thermal acclimation entails phenotypic adjustments that are found commonly across taxa, such as changes in the lipid composition of cell membranes. Temperature change influences the fluidity of cell membranes by affecting the motion of the fatty acyl chains of glycerophospholipids. Because maintaining membrane fluidity is critical for cell function, ectotherms adjust the phospholipid composition of their cell membranes such that the strength of van der Waals forces within the membrane is changed, thereby maintaining fluidity across temperatures.
Diet Phenotypic plasticity of the digestive system allows some animals to respond to changes in dietary nutrient composition, diet quality, and energy requirements.