Assortative mating can help adaptation of flowering time to a changing climate: Insights from a polygenic model.

ABSTRACT: Several empirical studies report fast evolutionary changes in flowering time in response to contemporary climate change. Flowering time is a polygenic trait under assortative mating, since flowering time of mates must overlap. Here, we test whether assortative mating, compared with random mating, can help better track a changing climate. For each mating pattern, our individual-based model simulates a population evolving in a climate characterized by stabilizing selection around an optimal flowering time, which can change directionally and/or fluctuate. We also derive new analytical predictions from a quantitative genetics model for the expected genetic variance at equilibrium, and its components, the lag of the population to the optimum and the population mean fitness. We compare these pre

SUBMITTER: Godineau C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9292552 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature