Age-dependent genetic architecture across ontogeny of body size in sticklebacks.

ABSTRACT: Heritable variation in traits under natural selection is a prerequisite for evolutionary response. While it is recognized that trait heritability may vary spatially and temporally depending on which environmental conditions traits are expressed under, less is known about the possibility that genetic variance contributing to the expected selection response in a given trait may vary at different stages of ontogeny. Specifically, whether different loci underlie the expression of a trait throughout development and thus providing an additional source of variation for selection to act on in the wild, is unclear. Here we show that body size, an important life-history trait, is heritable throughout ontogeny in the nine-spined stickleback (Pungitius pungitius). Nevertheless, both analyses of

SUBMITTER: Fraimout A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9118060 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature