Open AccessGenetic and phenotypic correlations in plants: a botanical test of Cheverud's conjecture
Author(s) -
Damon E Waitt,
Donald A. Levin
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
heredity
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.441
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1365-2540
pISSN - 0018-067X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2540.1998.00298.x
Subject(s) - biology , correlation , phenotype , genetic correlation , phenotypic trait , evolutionary biology , genetics , genetic variation , gene , mathematics , geometry
A survey of the agricultural and evolutionary literature was undertaken to determine the extent to which phenotypic correlations reflect their genetic counterparts in plants. More than 4000 phenotypic and genetic correlations representing 27 different plant species and over 40 years of research were analysed. In 74 per cent of the comparisons, the arrangement of elements of different magnitudes in genetic and phenotypic correlation matrices was more similar than would be expected by chance alone. In addition, the overall magnitude of correlation was greater in genetic correlation matrices than in phenotypic correlation matrices in 85 per cent of the comparisons. Several studies which reported correlations within and among distinct suites of traits provided the opportunity to evaluate correlations among functionally or developmentally related characters. It was determined from these studies that traits belonging to the same suite of characters were more highly genetically and phenotypically correlated than traits from different suites.