Indirect genetic effects and the evolution of aggression in a vertebrate system.

ABSTRACT: Aggressive behaviours are necessarily expressed in a social context, such that individuals may be influenced by the phenotypes, and potentially the genotypes, of their social partners. Consequently, it has been hypothesized that indirect genetic effects (IGEs) arising from the social environment will provide a major source of heritable variation on which selection can act. However, there has been little empirical scrutiny of this to date. Here we test this hypothesis in an experimental population of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus). Using quantitative genetic models of five aggression traits, we find repeatable and heritable differences in agonistic behaviours of focal individuals when presented with an opponent mouse. For three of the traits, there is also support for the presence of IG

SUBMITTER: Wilson AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2664347 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature