VARIATIONAL AND GENETIC PROPERTIES OF DEVELOPMENTAL STABILITY IN DALECHAMPIA SCANDENS

Because low developmental stability may compromise the precision with which adaptations can be reached, the variability and genetic basis of developmental stability are important evolutionary parameters. Developmental stability is also an important clue to understanding how traits are regulated to a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEvolution Vol. 58; no. 3; pp. 504 - 514
Main Authors Pélabon, Christophe, Hansen, Thomas F, Carlson, Matthew L, Armbruster, W. Scott
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Society for the Study of Evolution 01.03.2004
Oxford University Press
Subjects
Adaptation
Analysis of Variance
Covariance
Dalechampia scandens
developmental stability
Euphorbiaceae - genetics
Euphorbiaceae - growth & development
Evolution
Evolutionary genetics
evolvability
Flowers & plants
Flowers - anatomy & histology
Flowers - growth & development
fluctuating asymmetry
Genetic variance
Genetic Variation
Heritability
homozygosity
Measurement
Mexico
Models, Biological
Phenotypes
Phenotypic traits
Quantitative genetics
REGULAR ARTICLES
Statistical variance
Variances
Mexico
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Summary:Because low developmental stability may compromise the precision with which adaptations can be reached, the variability and genetic basis of developmental stability are important evolutionary parameters. Developmental stability is also an important clue to understanding how traits are regulated to achieve their phenotypic target value. However, developmental stability must be studied indirectly through proxy variables, such as fluctuating asymmetry, that are suggested to have noisy and often nonlinear relationships to the underlying variable of interest. In this paper we first show that mean-standardized measures of variance and covariance in fluctuating asymmetry, unlike heritabilities, repeatabilities, and correlations, are linearly related to corresponding measures of variation in underlying developmental stability. We then examine the variational properties of developmental stability in a population of the Neotropical vine, Dalechampia scandens (Euphorbiaceae). By studying fluctuating asymmetry in a large number of floral characters in both selfed and outcrossed individuals in a diallel design, we assemble strong evidence that both additive genetic and individual variation and covariation in developmental stability are virtually absent in this population.
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ISSN:0014-3820
1558-5646
DOI:10.1554/03-439