Fig 4. Plasticity and adaptive distance in expression for a set of genes expected to increase/reduce plasticity in heterogeneous regimes.

(A) Log₂FC across diets, polarized in the adaptive direction for each gene, and averaged across the set of genes that are expected to increase plasticity in heterogeneous regimes. There is significant variation among regimes; 49.5% of the total variance is caused by the variance between regimes (F = 6.2, df = 3, p = 0.009; letters denote statistically different groups). Spatial has significantly higher adaptive plasticity than Cad (p_adj = 0.047) and Salt (p_adj = 0.03). Temp has significantly higher adaptive plasticity than Salt (p_adj = 0.041) and the difference compared to Cad is marginally non-significant (p_adj = 0.065). The “*” indicates that the plasticity in the adaptive direction is significant from 0 based on a one-sample t test. (B) Average |log₂FC| for genes expected to evolve reduced plasticity in heterogeneous regimes. The variation among regimes is not significant (p = 0.18), though the model attributes 30% of the variance to differences among regimes (C) Average adaptive distance $\overline{\Phi }$ for genes expected to increase plasticity. There is significant variation in $\overline{\Phi }$ across regimes in both diets (cadmium: F = 44.9, df = 3, p = 8.6e-07, 96% of the total variance is attributable to regime effects; salt: F = 6.3, df = 3, p = 0.008, 72% of the total variance is attributable to regime effects). In the cadmium diet, $\overline{\Phi }$ for Salt is significantly higher than for Cad (p_adj = 1e-06), Temp (p_adj = 5.8e-06) and Spatial (p_adj = 1.5e-05). In the salt diet, $\overline{\Phi }$ for Cad is significantly higher than for the Salt (p_adj = 0.009). (D) Average adaptive distance $\overline{\Phi }$. for genes expected to reduce plasticity. There is significant variation in average adaptive distance ($\overline{\Phi }$) among regimes in both diets (cadmium: F = 49.3, df = 3, p = 5.08e-07, 90% of the total variance is attributable to regime effects; salt: F = 9.8, df = 3, p = 0.0015, 81% of the total variance is attributable to regime effects). In the cadmium diet, $\overline{\Phi }$ for Salt is significantly higher than Cad (p_adj = 1.1e-06), Temp (p_adj = 1.1e-06) and Spatial (p_adj = 2.8e-05). In the salt diet, $\overline{\Phi }$ for Cad is significantly higher than for Salt (p_adj = 0.003), Temp (p_adj = 0.027) and Spatial (p_adj = 0.002).