Heritability and genetic constraints of life-history trait evolution in preindustrial humans

Pettay, Jenni E.; Kruuk, Loeske E. B.; Jokela, Jukka; Lummaa, Virpi

doi:10.1073/pnas.0406709102

Cited by 177 publications

(143 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Pettay et al (2005) observed much higher heritability of female life course characteristics compared with male ones. Their expectation was that in monogamous study populations reproductive traits depended heavily on female qualities and were physiologically under female control.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…Various authors have tried to separate the intergenerational correlations in age at first reproduction in genetic effects and non-genetically inherited effects. It is suggested that the selection gradient on age at first reproduction has changed over time as a consequence of changes in environmentally caused variation and cultural transmission of this life-history trait (Kirk et al 2001;Pettay et al 2005). Since the age at reproduction in historical populations is to a large degree dependent on the age at marriage (Anderton et al 1987), the study of the intergenerational transmission of age at marriage offers an opportunity to test the effect of cultural changes.…”

Section: Hypotheses On the Role Of Intergenerational Transmission In mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Marriage Timing over the Generations

Poppel

Monden

Mandemakers

2008

Hum Nat

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Strong relationships have been hypothesized between the timing of marriage and the familial environment of the couple. Sociologists have identified various mechanisms via which the age at marriage in the parental generation might be related to the age at marriage of the children. In our paper we study this relationship for historical populations. We use a dataset consisting of several hundreds of thousands of marriages contracted in three of the 11 Dutch provinces between 1812 and 1922. We identified the generational links between the brides, grooms, their parents, and grandparents. We studied (a) whether there is a relationship between ages at marriage of (grandfathers) fathers and sons, and ages at marriage of (grandmothers) mothers and daughters and (b) whether this relationship might be explained by social class. We find evidence for a clear effect of the family on age at marriage and substantial intergenerational transmission. The impact that the family of origin has on age at entry into marriage can partly be attributed to social class. We also observed positive effects of grandparents' age at marriage on their offspring's age at marriage.

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Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Section: Hypotheses On the Role Of Intergenerational Transmission In mentioning

confidence: 99%

Marriage Timing over the Generations

Poppel

Monden

Mandemakers

2008

Hum Nat

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“…Reproductive fitness traits are complex phenotypes influenced by environmental and genetic factors and have been studied extensively in both animal and human populations (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)22). Despite this fact the extent to which these traits are shaped by genetic forces (or the nature of this action) in humans remains controversial (e.g., refs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, the narrow heritabilities we estimated for our reproductive fitness traits compare well with those derived from studies of wild animal populations (e.g., refs. 7 and 32) and preindustrial humans (22). For example, narrow heritabilities for fitness traits estimated in various animal populations are low, ranging between 0 and 0.30 (7,32).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heritability of reproductive fitness traits in a human population

Kosova

Abney²,

Ober

2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The genetic basis of fitness traits has been studied widely in animals, yet the contribution of genetic variation to these traits in humans is controversial. In particular, it is difficult to disentangle genetic versus environmental effects on fertility, because of within-family correlations of sociocultural, economic, and other nongenetic factors that influence family sizes. In this study, we investigated the genetic architecture of reproductive fitness traits in a fertile human population whose communal lifestyle assures uniform and equal access to resources. Our study revealed significant heritabilities for reproductive traits in both men and women, after accounting for common household effects shared among siblings and demographic changes in reproductive practices. Furthermore, our results indicate that both autosomal and X-linked additive and dominance variances contribute to these traits. We therefore propose that reproductive traits should be amenable to genetic mapping studies, and the results we present here will facilitate the search for the novel genes influencing natural fertility in humans.life history traits | human fertility R eproductive fitness reflects the ability of individuals to pass on their genes to subsequent generations. Fitness traits, also referred to as life-history traits, include measures of fertility and mortality and are complex phenotypes that are direct targets of Darwinian selection. Understanding the genetic basis of variation in these traits and inheritance in animals has long been a central theme in evolutionary biology (1). However, partitioning the observed variation into the genetic and environmental sources, and therefore determining the heritability of these traits, remains challenging in humans. As a result, current theories on the evolution and heritability of fitness, and the empirical data, come largely from animal studies (for examples, see refs. 2-8). However, studies of model organisms suggest that hundreds of genes influence fertility in mammals (9). Standing variation in any of those genes could contribute to interindividual differences in fitness in natural populations.The difficulty in assessing genetic contributions to human fertility is caused in part by the fact that human family sizes are often deliberately limited, with few populations reaching their true reproductive potential, and because the many nongenetic factors that influence human family size are often shared within families. As a result, disentangling the effects of shared genes from shared environment is often impossible. For example, parent-child correlations in family sizes have been reported for a number of human populations (10-16). However, in nearly all of these studies, the investigators concluded that social or cultural transmission, such as patterns of emigration (10), polygyny and higher male mortality (11), education or marital age (12), or differential access to resources and ability to acquire a mate (15), but not genetic factors, accounted for the observed intergenerational correl...

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“…The variation underlying rates of fertility loss are not only environmental. The age of onset of natural menopause in humans can be predicted by family history, with heritability estimates ranging from 0.30 to 0.85 (Kirk et al, 2001;de Bruin et al, 2001;Kok et al, 2005;Pettay et al, 2005;Broekmans et al, 2007). Linkage analysis of age at natural menopause has identified two significant quantitative trait loci influencing age at menopause (van Asselt et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative genetic variation in the control of ovarian apoptosis under different environments

et al. 2009

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Fertility loss in otherwise healthy individuals can be an evolutionary conundrum. Most studies on the evolution of postreproductive lifespan focus on the fitness effects of survival past the age of last reproduction. A complementary approach, which has been largely neglected, is to develop an understanding of the nature of variation in the mechanism underlying loss of fertility, ovarian apoptosis. Variation in the genetics underlying the regulation of ovarian apoptosis could hold the key to understanding the evolution of midlife fertility loss. We estimated quantitative genetic variation in the regulation of ovarian apoptosis in females of the cockroach Nauphoeta cinerea, an insect with reproductive cycles. We have earlier shown that delaying reproduction incites loss of fertility. Here, we forced females to delay reproduction under conditions of excess or limited food and examined apoptosis under both conditions. We found substantial additive genetic variation in levels of apoptosis when females experienced a limited period of starvation during sexual maturation but not when females had unlimited access to food. Hence, selection could act on the regulation of ovarian apoptosis to change the rate of fertility loss with age at least under some environmental circumstances. Our results suggest that an understanding of how loss of fertility evolves requires an understanding of the interaction between genes involved in the regulation of apoptosis and environmental factors such as diet.

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Heritability and genetic constraints of life-history trait evolution in preindustrial humans

Cited by 177 publications

References 46 publications

Marriage Timing over the Generations

Marriage Timing over the Generations

Heritability of reproductive fitness traits in a human population

Quantitative genetic variation in the control of ovarian apoptosis under different environments

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