The relative importance of genetic and nongenetic inheritance in relation to trait plasticity in Callosobruchus maculatus

A trait's response to natural selection will reflect the nature of the inheritance mechanisms that mediate the transmission of variation across generations. The relative importance of genetic and nongenetic mechanisms of inheritance is predicted to be related to the degree of trait plasticity,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of evolutionary biology Vol. 25; no. 12; pp. 2422 - 2431
Main Authors Hallsson, L. R., Chenoweth, S. F., Bonduriansky, R.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.12.2012
Subjects
Animals
Callosobruchus maculatus
Coleoptera - genetics
Diets
Evolution
Evolutionary biology
Female
Genetic variance
genetic variation
Heredity
host quality
Inheritance Patterns
Male
Morphology
Natural selection
nongenetic inheritance
parental effects
Paternal effects
Phenotype
Plasticity
Reproduction
seed beetle
Seeds
Selection
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Summary:A trait's response to natural selection will reflect the nature of the inheritance mechanisms that mediate the transmission of variation across generations. The relative importance of genetic and nongenetic mechanisms of inheritance is predicted to be related to the degree of trait plasticity, with nongenetic inheritance playing a greater role in the cross‐generational transmission of more plastic traits. However, this prediction has never been tested. We investigated the influence of genetic effects and nongenetic parental effects in two morphological traits differing in degree of plasticity by manipulating larval diet quality within a cross‐generational split‐brood experiment using the seed beetle Callososbuchus maculatus. In line with predictions, we found that the more plastic trait (elytron length) is strongly influenced by both maternal and paternal effects whereas genetic variance is undetectable. In contrast, the less plastic trait (first abdominal sternite length) is not influenced by parental effects but exhibits abundant genetic variance. Our findings support the hypothesis that environment‐dependent parental effects may play a particularly important role in highly plastic traits and thereby affect the evolutionary response of such traits.
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ISSN:1010-061X
1420-9101
DOI:10.1111/jeb.12014