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QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF BIOENERGETICS AND GROWTH‐RELATED TRAITS IN THE WILD MAMMAL, PHYLLOTIS DARWINI
Author(s) -
Nespolo Roberto F.,
Bustamante Diego M.,
Bacigalupe Leonardo D.,
Bozinovic Francisco
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/j.0014-3820.2005.tb01829.x
Subject(s) - biology , heritability , microevolution , trait , bioenergetics , genetic correlation , maternal effect , quantitative genetics , basal metabolic rate , genetic variation , genetics , zoology , offspring , gene , endocrinology , pregnancy , population , demography , sociology , computer science , mitochondrion , programming language
We studied the potential for response to selection in typical physiological‐thermoregulatory traits of mammals such as maximum metabolic rate (MMR), nonshivering thermogenesis (NST) and basal metabolic rate (BMR) on cold‐acclimated animals. We used an animal model approach to estimate both narrow‐sense heritabilities ( h 2 ) and genetic correlations between physiological and growth‐related traits. Univariate analyses showed that MMR presented high, significant heritability ( h 2 = 0.69±0.35, asymptotic standard error), suggesting the potential for microevolution in this variable. However, NST and presented low, nonsignificant h 2, and NST showed large maternal/common environmental/nonadditive effects ( c 2 0.34 ± 0.17). Heritabilities were large and significant ( h 2 > 0.5) for all growth‐related traits (birth mass, growth rate, weaning mass). The only significant genetic correlations we found between a physiological trait and a growth‐related trait was between NST and birth mass ( r = ‐0.74; P < 0.05). Overall, these results suggest that additive genetic variance is present in several bioenergetic traits, and that genetic correlations could be present between those different kinds of traits.