Multiplicative genotype-environment interaction as a cause of reversed response to directional selection.

In experiments with directional selection on a quantitative character a "reversed response" to selection is occasionally observed, when selection of individuals for a higher (lower) value of the character results in a lower (higher) value of the character among their offspring. A sudden change in environments or random drift is often assumed to be responsible for this. It is demonstrated in this paper that these two causes cannot account for the reversed response at least in some of the experiments. Multiplicative genotype-environment interaction is discussed as a possible cause of a reversed response to directional selection. Such interaction entails either disruptive or stabilizing genotypic selection, even when the phenotypic selection is directional.