Phenotypic plasticity is common among animal taxa. While there are clearly limits and likely costs to plasticity, these costs are unknown for most organisms. Further, as plasticity is partially genetically determined, the potential magnitude of exhibited plasticity may vary among individuals. In addition to phenotypic plasticity, various animal taxa also display sexual size dimorphism, a feature ultimately thought to arise due to differential size-dependent fitness costs and benefits between sexes. We hypothesized that differential selection acting on males and females can indirectly select for unequal genetically defined plasticity potential between the sexes. We evaluate this possibility for Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis), a species that displays modest sexual size dimorphism and habitat-related morphological plasticity. Using 500-year simulations of an ecogenetic agent-based model, we demonstrate that genetically determined morphological plasticity potential may evolve differently for males and females, leading to greater realized morphological variation between habitats for one sex over the other. Genetically determined potential for plasticity evolved differently between sexes across (a) various sex-specific life-history differences and (b) a variety of assumed costs of plasticity acting on both growth and survival. Morphological analyses of Eurasian perch collected in situ were consistent with model predictions: realized morphological variation between habitats was greater for females than males. We suggest that due to sex-specific selective pressures, differences in male and female genetically defined potential for plasticity may be a common feature across organisms.

表型可塑性在动物类群中很常见。尽管可塑性有明显的局限性和可能的​​成本，但对于大多数生物而言，这些成本是未知的。此外，由于可塑性是部分遗传决定的，因此所显示出的可塑性的大小可能会因个体而异。除了表型可塑性外，各种动物分类群还表现出性大小二态性，该特性最终被认为是由于大小依赖性健身成本和性别之间的差异而引起的。我们假设，作用于男性和女性的差异选择可以间接选择两性之间不平等的遗传定义的可塑性潜力。我们评估欧亚鲈（Perca fluviatilis），该物种表现出适度的性大小双态性和与栖息地相关的形态可塑性。使用基于生态遗传因子的模型的500年模拟，我们证明了男性确定的遗传确定的形态可塑性潜力可能会有所不同，从而导致一种性别的生境在另一种性别上的实现的形态变异更大。遗传决定的可塑性潜力在（a）各种性别特定的生活史差异和（b）各种假定的可塑性成本对生长和生存的影响之间，在性别之间有不同的演变。就地收集的欧亚鲈鱼的形态学分析与模型预测一致：雌性比雄性栖息地之间的形态变化更大。我们建议，由于特定于性别的选择压力，