Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40294283›Full record

ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2025

Cryptic genetic variation in brain gene expression precedes the evolution of cannibalism in spadefoot toad tadpoles.

Dante J Nesta, Cristina C Ledón-Rettig

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. AScience signaling · 2026
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Cryptic genetic variation in brain gene expression precedes the evolution of cannibalism in spadefoot toad tadpoles.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Dante J NestaDepartment of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405.ORCID 0009-0007-8206-660X
Cristina C Ledón-RettigDepartment of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405.ORCID 0000-0002-1417-7486

Funding

National Science Foundation (NSF) DEB-1754136
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The origins of novel behaviors are poorly understood, despite behavior's hypothesized roles in evolution. One model, "genetic accommodation," proposes that selection on ancestral phenotypic plasticity may precede the evolution of novel traits. A critical assumption of genetic accommodation is that ancestral lineages possess heritable genetic variation for trait plasticity that is revealed in novel environments, thereby providing the raw materials for subsequent refinement of the novel trait in derived lineages. Here, we use a combination of behavioral and RNA-seq approaches to test this assumption in the context of a novel tadpole behavior: predatory cannibalism. Cannibalism evolved in the spadefoot genus

Indexed as

AnuraBiological EvolutionBrainCannibalismGenetic VariationLarvaAnimalsBehavior, AnimalPhenotypePredatory Behaviordevelopmental plasticitygenetic accommodationplasticity-first evolutionpolyphenismRNA-seq

Identifiers

PMID40294283
PMCPMC12088425

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.