Weak genetic signal for phenotypic integration implicates developmental processes as major regulators of trait covariation.

ABSTRACT: Phenotypic integration is an important metric that describes the degree of covariation among traits in a population, and is hypothesized to arise due to selection for shared functional processes. Our ability to identify the genetic and/or developmental underpinnings of integration is marred by temporally overlapping cell-, tissue- and structure-level processes that serve to continually 'overwrite' the structure of covariation among traits through ontogeny. Here, we examine whether traits that are integrated at the phenotypic level also exhibit a shared genetic basis (e.g. pleiotropy). We micro-CT scanned two hard tissue traits, and two soft tissue traits (mandible, pectoral girdle, atrium and ventricle, respectively) from an F₅ hybrid population of Lake Malawi cichlids, and used

SUBMITTER: Conith AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8811731 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature