Genetic variation in baboon craniofacial sexual dimorphism.

ABSTRACT: Sexual dimorphism is a widespread phenomenon and contributes greatly to intraspecies variation. Despite a long history of active research, the genetic basis of dimorphism for complex traits remains unknown. Understanding the sex-specific differences in genetic architecture for cranial traits in a highly dimorphic species could identify possible mechanisms through which selection acts to produce dimorphism. Using distances calculated from three-dimensional landmark data from CT scans of 402 baboon skulls from a known genealogy, we estimated genetic variance parameters in both sexes to determine the presence of gene-by-sex (G x S) interactions and X-linked heritability. We hypothesize that traits exhibiting the greatest degree of sexual dimorphism (facial traits in baboons) will demonstrate

SUBMITTER: Willmore KE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2836714 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature