Genetic and phenotypic correlations in plants: a botanical test of Cheverud's conjecture

Waitt, Damon E; Levin, Donald A.

doi:10.1038/sj.hdy.6882980

Cited by 40 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Nevertheless, most of these correlations vanished for the populations studied separately, suggesting that floral-size traits are not actually coupled with vegetative traits in E. mediohispanicum. This finding agrees with most studies, which have shown that genetic and phenotypic correlations between floral and vegetative character suites are low and mostly statistically nonsignificant (Conner and Via 1993;Conner and Sterling 1996;Waitt and Levin 1998;Armbruster et al 1999;Worley and Barrett 2000;Juenger et al 2005;Ashman and Majetic 2006).…”

Section: Genetic Correlations Among Traitssupporting

confidence: 93%

HERITABILITY AND GENETIC CORRELATION OF COROLLA SHAPE AND SIZE INERYSIMUM MEDIOHISPANICUM

et al. 2009

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Flower shape has evolved in most plants as a consequence of pollinator-mediated selection. Unfortunately, no study has explored the genetic variation of flower shape, despite that this information is crucial to understand its adaptive evolution. Our main goal here is to determine heritability of corolla shape in Erysimum mediohispanicum (Brassicaceae). Also, we explore heritability of other pollinator-selected traits in this plant species, such as plant size, flower display, and corolla size. In addition, we investigate genetic correlations between all these traits. We found significant heritability for one plant-size trait (stalk height), for number of flowers, for all corolla-size traits (corolla diameter, corolla tube length and corolla tube width), and for corolla shape. Consequently, this species retains a high ability to respond to the selection exerted by its pollinators. Genetic correlation was strong between all functionally related traits and between flower number and plant size, weak between corolla size and plant size and no correlation between corolla shape and any other trait. Thus, selection affecting some E. mediohispanicum traits would also indirectly affect other functionally related and unrelated traits. More importantly, the observed genetic correlation seems to be at least partially adaptive because positive correlational selection currently acts on the covariance between some of these traits (Gómez 2003; Gómez et al. 2006).K E Y W O R D S : Brassicaceae, corolla shape heritability, Erysimum mediohispanicum, genetic correlation, geometric morphometrics, phenotypic integration.

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Section: Genetic Correlations Among Traitssupporting

confidence: 93%

HERITABILITY AND GENETIC CORRELATION OF COROLLA SHAPE AND SIZE INERYSIMUM MEDIOHISPANICUM

et al. 2009

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“…Therefore, although we expect pollination to affect trait means, we do not expect it to influence the genetic correlations among traits. Most of the phenotypic correlations not involving the flower number and size trade-off were in the same direction as genetic correlations but were somewhat weaker, which follows the predictions and observations of Cheverud (1988; see also Waitt and Levin 1998). However, phenotypic correlations between stem mass and flower number were greater than genetic correlations in both males and females.…”

Section: Highersupporting

confidence: 82%

Sexual Dimorphism in the Quantitative-Genetic Architecture of Floral, Leaf, and Allocation Traits in Silene Latifolia

2007

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“…Phenotypic correlations can only be used to assess whether evolutionary responses are constrained if it is reasonable to assume that phenotypic correlations are representative of underlying genetic correlations (Cheverud 1988;Roff 1995;Waitt and Levin 1998). We estimated genetic correlations for the same 36 pairwise comparisons of traits (Table 1): the correspondence between the genetic and phenotypic correlations was quite good (r ϭ 0.722, n ϭ 36, P Ͻ 0.0001).…”

Section: Relationships Between Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Natural Selection and Inheritance of Breeding Time and Clutch Size in the Collared Flycatcher

2003

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Many characteristics of organisms in free-living populations appear to be under directional selection, possess additive genetic variance, and yet show no evolutionary response to selection. Avian breeding time and clutch size are often-cited examples of such characters. We report analyses of inheritance of, and selection on, these traits in a long-term study of a wild population of the collared flycatcher Ficedula albicollis. We used mixed model analysis with REML estimation ("animal models") to make full use of the information in complex multigenerational pedigrees. Heritability of laying date, but not clutch size, was lower than that estimated previously using parent-offspring regressions, although for both traits there was evidence of substantial additive genetic variance (h2 = 0.19 and 0.29, respectively). Laying date and clutch size were negatively genetically correlated (rA = -0.41 +/- 0.09), implying that selection on one of the traits would cause a correlated response in the other, but there was little evidence to suggest that evolution of either trait would be constrained by correlations with other phenotypic characters. Analysis of selection on these traits in females revealed consistent strong directional fecundity selection for earlier breeding at the level of the phenotype (beta = -0.28 +/- 0.03), but little evidence for stabilising selection on breeding time. We found no evidence that clutch size was independently under selection. Analysis of fecundity selection on breeding values for laying date, estimated from an animal model, indicated that selection acts directly on additive genetic variance underlying breeding time (beta = -0.20 +/- 0.04), but not on clutch size (beta = 0.03 +/- 0.05). In contrast, selection on laying date via adult female survival fluctuated in sign between years, and was opposite in sign for selection on phenotypes (negative) and breeding values (positive). Our data thus suggest that any evolutionary response to selection on laying date is partially constrained by underlying life-history trade-offs, and illustrate the difficulties in using purely phenotypic measures and incomplete fitness estimates to assess evolution of life-history trade-offs. We discuss some of the difficulties associated with understanding the evolution of laying date and clutch size in natural populations.

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Genetic and phenotypic correlations in plants: a botanical test of Cheverud's conjecture

Cited by 40 publications

References 9 publications

HERITABILITY AND GENETIC CORRELATION OF COROLLA SHAPE AND SIZE INERYSIMUM MEDIOHISPANICUM

HERITABILITY AND GENETIC CORRELATION OF COROLLA SHAPE AND SIZE INERYSIMUM MEDIOHISPANICUM

Sexual Dimorphism in the Quantitative-Genetic Architecture of Floral, Leaf, and Allocation Traits in Silene Latifolia

Natural Selection and Inheritance of Breeding Time and Clutch Size in the Collared Flycatcher

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