The Fat/Hippo signaling pathway links within-disc morphogen patterning to whole-animal signals during phenotypically plastic growth in insects.

Background: Insects exhibit a diversity of environmentally sensitive phenotypes that allow them to be an extraordinarily successful group. For example, mandible size in male stag beetles is exquisitely sensitive to the larval nutritional environment and is a reliable signal of male condition.

Results: To date, studies of how such phenotypically plastic traits develop have focused on two types of mechanistic processes.