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HIERARCHICAL COMPARISON OF GENETIC VARIANCE‐COVARIANCE MATRICES. II COASTAL‐INLAND DIVERGENCE IN THE GARTER SNAKE, THAMNOPHIS ELEGANS
Author(s) -
Arnold Stevan J.,
Phillips Patrick C.
Publication year - 1999
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.1558-5646.1999.tb05415.x
Subject(s) - biology , divergence (linguistics) , selection (genetic algorithm) , meristics , covariance , foraging , evolutionary biology , genetic divergence , multivariate statistics , thamnophis sirtalis , eigenvalues and eigenvectors , matrix (chemical analysis) , ecology , zoology , statistics , mathematics , genetic diversity , population , philosophy , linguistics , demography , physics , materials science , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , sociology , computer science , composite material
The time‐scale for the evolution of additive genetic variance‐covariance matrices ( G ‐matrices) is a crucial issue in evolutionary biology. If the evolution of G ‐matrices is slow enough, we can use standard multivariate equations to model drift and selection response on evolutionary time scales. We compared the G ‐matrices for meristic traits in two populations of gaiter snakes ( Thamnophis elegans ) with an apparent separation time of 2 million years. Despite considerable divergence in the meristic traits, foraging habits, and diet, these populations show conservation of structure in their G ‐matrices. Using Flury's hierarchial approach to matrix comparisons, we found that the populations have retained the principal components (eigenvectors) of their G ‐matrices, but their eigenvalues have diverged. In contrast, we were unable to reject the hypothesis of equal environmental matrices ( E ‐matrices) for these populations. We propose that a conserved pattern of multivariate stabilizing selection may have contributed to conservation of G ‐ and E ‐matrix structure during the divergence of these populations.