The nature of nurture in a wild mammal's fitness.

ABSTRACT: Genetic variation in fitness is required for the adaptive evolution of any trait but natural selection is thought to erode genetic variance in fitness. This paradox has motivated the search for mechanisms that might maintain a population's adaptive potential. Mothers make many contributions to the attributes of their developing offspring and these maternal effects can influence responses to natural selection if maternal effects are themselves heritable. Maternal genetic effects (MGEs) on fitness might, therefore, represent an underappreciated source of adaptive potential in wild populations. Here we used two decades of data from a pedigreed wild population of North American red squirrels to show that MGEs on offspring fitness increased the population's evolvability by over two orders of ma

SUBMITTER: McFarlane SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4426606 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature