Premium
POPULATION STRUCTURE OF MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS IN CLARKIA DUDLEYANA . II. CONSTANCY OF WITHIN‐POPULATION GENETIC VARIANCE
Author(s) -
Podolsky Robert H.,
Shaw Ruth G.,
Shaw Frank H.
Publication year - 1997
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.1558-5646.1997.tb05102.x
Subject(s) - biology , population , evolutionary biology , variance (accounting) , demography , accounting , sociology , business
Recent quantitative genetic studies have attempted to infer long‐term selection responsible for differences in observed phenotypes. These analyses are greatly simplified by the assumption that the within‐population genetic variance remains constant through time and over space, or for the multivariate case, that the matrix of additive genetic variances and covariances (G matrix) is constant. We examined differences in G matrices and the association of these differences with differences in multivariate means (Mahalanobis D 2 ) among 11 populations of the California endemic annual plant, Clarkia dudleyana . Based on nine continuous morphological traits, the relationship between Mahalanobis D 2 and a distance measure summarizing differences in G matrices reflected no concomitant change in (co)variances with changes in means. Based on both broad‐ and narrow‐sense analyses, we found little evidence that G matrices differed between populations. These results suggest that both the additive and nonadditive (co)variances for traits have remained relatively constant despite changes in means.