Studying phenotypic evolution using multivariate quantitative genetics

The Quantitative Genetics of Phenotypic Robustness

Phenotypic robustness, or canalization, has been extensively investigated both experimentally and theoretically. However, it remains unknown to what extent robustness varies between individuals, and whether factors buffering environmental variation also buffer genetic variation. Here we introduce a quantitative genetic approach to these issues, and apply this approach to data from three species...

Statistical Genetics and Evolution of Quantitative Traits

The distribution and heritability of many traits depends on numerous loci in the genome. In general, the astronomical number of possible genotypes makes the system with large numbers of loci difficult to describe. Multilocus evolution, however, greatly simplifies in the limit of weak selection and frequent recombination. In this limit, populations rapidly reach Quasi-Linkage Equilibrium (QLE) i...

PHENOTYPIC INTEGRATION Studying the Ecology and Evolution of Complex Phenotypes

The Quantitative Genetics of Phenotypic Error or Uniformity

The ε term is referred to by numerous synonyms in the literature like stochastic noise, biological variance, and error but is more commonly discussed as the inverse (ε−1) using words like uniformity, canalization, robustness, or stability depending upon the research field. In evolutionary theory, canalization is utilized to refer to the idea that selection functions to minimize the error (maxim...

Studying the Genetics of Behavior & Evolution by Adaptation & Natural Selection