Figure 3

Parental effects on plasticity may change the predictions of experimental studies. (a) Schematic representation of a 2×2 factorial experiment on parental effects. (b) Experimental predictions based on the standard scenario, in which early parental cues directly shape the target phenotype. (c) Experimental predictions based on an alternative scenario, in which early parental cues shape plasticity to the later environment with a U-shaped reaction norm. In this scenario, the target phenotype (red/blue dots) is determined by the offspring environment rather than the parental environment. As a result, the expected fitness is the same for “matched” and “mismatched” phenotypes.