Genetic correlations and their dependence on environmental similarity : insights from livestock data
(2019) In Evolution 73(8). p.1672-1678- Abstract
- Genetic correlations for a trait across environments are predicted to decrease as environments diverge. However, estimates of genetic correlations from natural populations are typically defined across a limited environmental range and prone to very large standard errors, making it difficult to test this prediction. We address the importance of environmental distance on genetic correlations by employing data from domestic cattle in which abundant and accurate estimates are available from a wide range of environments. Three production traits related to milk yield show a clear decrease in genetic correlations with increasing environmental divergence. This pattern was also evident for growth traits and other yield traits but not for traits... (More)
- Genetic correlations for a trait across environments are predicted to decrease as environments diverge. However, estimates of genetic correlations from natural populations are typically defined across a limited environmental range and prone to very large standard errors, making it difficult to test this prediction. We address the importance of environmental distance on genetic correlations by employing data from domestic cattle in which abundant and accurate estimates are available from a wide range of environments. Three production traits related to milk yield show a clear decrease in genetic correlations with increasing environmental divergence. This pattern was also evident for growth traits and other yield traits but not for traits related to reproduction, morphology, physiology, or disease. We suspect that this reflects weaker selection on these latter trait classes compared to production traits, or alternatively the effects of selection are constrained by unfavorable genetic correlations between traits. The results support the notion that traits that historically have been under strong directional selection in a small range of frequently encountered environments will evolve high genetic correlations across these environments, while exposure to uncommon (and dissimilar) environments lead to a reranking of gene effects and a decrease in genetic correlations across environments. (Less)
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Genetic correlations for a trait across environments are predicted to decrease as environments diverge. However, estimates of
genetic correlations from natural populations are typically defined across a limited environmental range and prone to very large
standard errors, making it difficult to test this prediction. We address the importance of environmental distance on genetic cor-
relations by employing data from domestic cattle in which abundant and accurate estimates are available from a wide range of
environments. Three production traits related to milk yield show a clear decrease in genetic correlations with increasing environ-
mental divergence. This pattern was also evident for growth traits and other yield traits... (More) - Genetic correlations for a trait across environments are predicted to decrease as environments diverge. However, estimates of
genetic correlations from natural populations are typically defined across a limited environmental range and prone to very large
standard errors, making it difficult to test this prediction. We address the importance of environmental distance on genetic cor-
relations by employing data from domestic cattle in which abundant and accurate estimates are available from a wide range of
environments. Three production traits related to milk yield show a clear decrease in genetic correlations with increasing environ-
mental divergence. This pattern was also evident for growth traits and other yield traits but not for traits related to reproduction,
morphology, physiology, or disease. We suspect that this reflects weaker selection on these latter trait classes compared to pro-
duction traits, or alternatively the effects of selection are constrained by unfavorable genetic correlations between traits. The
results support the notion that traits that historically have been under strong directional selection in a small range of frequently
encountered environments will evolve high genetic correlations across these environments, while exposure to uncommon (and
dissimilar) environments lead to a reranking of gene effects and a decrease in genetic correlations across environments.
(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/686d4f1f-f2c9-403b-a860-b8fee36896d6
- author
- Schou, M. F. LU ; Hoffmann, A. A. and Kristensen, T. N.
- organization
- publishing date
- 2019-05-30
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Evolution
- volume
- 73
- issue
- 8
- pages
- 7 pages
- publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85067475144
- pmid:31144765
- ISSN
- 1558-5646
- DOI
- 10.1111/evo.13762
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 686d4f1f-f2c9-403b-a860-b8fee36896d6
- date added to LUP
- 2019-06-28 21:28:19
- date last changed
- 2022-04-26 02:38:38
@article{686d4f1f-f2c9-403b-a860-b8fee36896d6,
abstract = {{Genetic correlations for a trait across environments are predicted to decrease as environments diverge. However, estimates of genetic correlations from natural populations are typically defined across a limited environmental range and prone to very large standard errors, making it difficult to test this prediction. We address the importance of environmental distance on genetic correlations by employing data from domestic cattle in which abundant and accurate estimates are available from a wide range of environments. Three production traits related to milk yield show a clear decrease in genetic correlations with increasing environmental divergence. This pattern was also evident for growth traits and other yield traits but not for traits related to reproduction, morphology, physiology, or disease. We suspect that this reflects weaker selection on these latter trait classes compared to production traits, or alternatively the effects of selection are constrained by unfavorable genetic correlations between traits. The results support the notion that traits that historically have been under strong directional selection in a small range of frequently encountered environments will evolve high genetic correlations across these environments, while exposure to uncommon (and dissimilar) environments lead to a reranking of gene effects and a decrease in genetic correlations across environments.}},
author = {{Schou, M. F. and Hoffmann, A. A. and Kristensen, T. N.}},
issn = {{1558-5646}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{05}},
number = {{8}},
pages = {{1672--1678}},
publisher = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
series = {{Evolution}},
title = {{Genetic correlations and their dependence on environmental similarity : insights from livestock data}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/evo.13762}},
doi = {{10.1111/evo.13762}},
volume = {{73}},
year = {{2019}},
}