Estimating Genetic and Maternal Effects Determining Variation in Immune Function of a Mixed-Mating Snail.

ABSTRACT: Evolution of host defenses such as immune function requires heritable genetic variation in them. However, also non-genetic maternal effects can contribute to phenotypic variation, thus being an alternative target for natural selection. We investigated the role of individuals' genetic background and maternal effects in determining immune defense traits (phenoloxidase and antibacterial activity of hemolymph), as well as in survival and growth, in the simultaneously hermaphroditic snail Lymnaea stagnalis. We utilized the mixed mating system of this species by producing full-sib families in which each parental snail had produced offspring as both a dam and as a sire, and tested whether genetic background (family) and non-genetic maternal effects (dam nested within family) explain trait variati

SUBMITTER: Seppala O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4995018 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature