Revista Chilena de Historia Natural 78 (2): 323-336, 2005
RESEARCH ARTICLE
An evolutionary frame of work to study physiological adaptation to high
altitudes
How complex physiological systems evolve is one of the major questions in evolutionary
physiology. For example, how traits interact at the physiological and genetic level, what are the roles of development and plasticity in
Darwinian evolution, and eventually how physiological traits will evolve, remains poorly understood. In this article we summarize the
current frame of work evolutionary physiologists are employing to study the evolution of physiological adaptations, as well as the role of
developmental and reversible phenotypic plasticity in this context. We also highlight representative examples of how the integration of
evolutionary and developmental physiology, concomitantly with the mechanistic understanding of physiological systems, can provide a
deeper insight on how endothermic vertebrates could cope with reduced ambient temperatures and oxygen availability characteristic of
high altitude environments. In this context, high altitude offers a unique system to study the evolution of physiological traits, and we
believe much can be gained by integrating theoretical and empirical knowledge from evolutionary biology, such as life-history theory or
the comparative method, with the mechanistic understanding of physiological processes.
Key words:
adaptation, evolutionary
processes, natural selection, life-history, oxygen availability, phenotypic plasticity
