trait variation
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Life ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 112
Author(s):  
Sergey Luzyanin ◽  
Anatoly Saveliev ◽  
Nadezhda Ukhova ◽  
Iraida Vorobyova ◽  
Igor Solodovnikov ◽  
...  

The aim of this study was to test the steepness of body size variation in males and females in the widespread ground beetle Pterostichus melanarius in geographical gradients. Beetles were sampled in 15 regions of Europe and Asia, and sampling territories differed 17° in latitude and 121° in longitude. We measured six linear traits in every captured beetle and formed a data set that included 2154 individuals. Body size variation in all traits in general was sawtooth, both in latitude and in longitude gradients. Regression analysis showed slight trends: in the latitude gradient, elytra parameters increased, pronotum length did not change but the width increased, and head parameters decreased. In the longitude gradient, the changes were as follows: elytra length increased, but its width did not change; pronotum length did not change, but its width increased; the head parameters decreased. Thus, we observed the elytra length increase and the head parameters decrease northwards and eastwards. We compared female and male regression curves (trait size on latitude/longitude): p-levels were significant only in four cases out of 12. Thus, we conclude that, in general, there is no evidence for the steepness in trait variation in males compared with females.


Genetics ◽  
2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart J Macdonald ◽  
Kristen M Cloud-Richardson ◽  
Dylan J Sims-West ◽  
Anthony D Long

Abstract Despite the value of Recombinant Inbred Lines (RILs) for the dissection of complex traits, large panels can be difficult to maintain, distribute, and phenotype. An attractive alternative to RILs for many traits leverages selecting phenotypically extreme individuals from a segregating population, and subjecting pools of selected and control individuals to sequencing. Under a bulked or extreme segregant analysis paradigm, genomic regions contributing to trait variation are revealed as frequency differences between pools. Here we describe such an extreme quantitative trait locus, or X-QTL, mapping strategy that builds on an existing multiparental population, the DSPR (Drosophila Synthetic Population Resource), and involves phenotyping and genotyping a population derived by mixing hundreds of DSPR RILs. Simulations demonstrate that challenging, yet experimentally tractable X-QTL designs ( > =4 replicates, > =5000 individuals/replicate, and selecting the 5-10% most extreme animals) yield at least the same power as traditional RIL-based QTL mapping and can localize variants with sub-centimorgan resolution. We empirically demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach using a 4-fold replicated X-QTL experiment that identifies 7 QTL for caffeine resistance. Two mapped X-QTL factors replicate loci previously identified in RILs, 6/7 are associated with excellent candidate genes, and RNAi knock-downs support the involvement of 4 genes in the genetic control of trait variation. For many traits of interest to drosophilists, a bulked phenotyping/genotyping X-QTL design has considerable advantages.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Elkin ◽  
Arnaud Martin ◽  
Virginie Courtier-Orgogozo ◽  
M. Emilia Santos

Vertebrate pigmentation patterns are amongst the best characterised model systems for studying the genetic basis of adaptive evolution. The wealth of available data on the genetic basis for pigmentation evolution allows for meta-analysis of trends and quantitative testing of evolutionary hypotheses. We employed Gephebase, a database of genetic variants associated with natural and domesticated trait variation, to examine trends in how cis-regulatory and coding mutations contribute to vertebrate pigmentation phenotypes, as well as factors that favour one mutation type over the other. We found that studies with lower ascertainment bias identified higher proportions of cis-regulatory mutations, and that cis-regulatory mutations were more common amongst animals harboring a higher number of pigment cell classes. We classified pigmentation traits firstly according to their physiological basis and secondly according to whether they affect colour or pattern, and identified that carotenoid-based pigmentation and variation in pattern boundaries are preferentially associated with cis-regulatory change. We also classified genes according to their developmental, cellular, and molecular functions. We found that genes implicated in upstream developmental processes had greater cis-regulatory proportions than downstream cellular function genes, and that ligands were associated with higher cis-regulatory proportions than their respective receptors. Based on these trends, we discuss future directions for research in vertebrate pigmentation evolution.


Author(s):  
Julia S. Joswig ◽  
Christian Wirth ◽  
Meredith C. Schuman ◽  
Jens Kattge ◽  
Björn Reu ◽  
...  

AbstractPlant functional traits can predict community assembly and ecosystem functioning and are thus widely used in global models of vegetation dynamics and land–climate feedbacks. Still, we lack a global understanding of how land and climate affect plant traits. A previous global analysis of six traits observed two main axes of variation: (1) size variation at the organ and plant level and (2) leaf economics balancing leaf persistence against plant growth potential. The orthogonality of these two axes suggests they are differently influenced by environmental drivers. We find that these axes persist in a global dataset of 17 traits across more than 20,000 species. We find a dominant joint effect of climate and soil on trait variation. Additional independent climate effects are also observed across most traits, whereas independent soil effects are almost exclusively observed for economics traits. Variation in size traits correlates well with a latitudinal gradient related to water or energy limitation. In contrast, variation in economics traits is better explained by interactions of climate with soil fertility. These findings have the potential to improve our understanding of biodiversity patterns and our predictions of climate change impacts on biogeochemical cycles.


PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e12633
Author(s):  
Qingqing Chen ◽  
Christian Smit ◽  
Ido Pen ◽  
Han Olff

Intraspecific trait variation (ITV) enables plants to respond to global changes. However, causes for ITV, especially from biotic components such as herbivory, are not well understood. We explored whether small vertebrate herbivores (hares and geese) impact ITV of a dominant clonal plant (Elytrigia atherica) in local communities. Moreover, we looked at the relative importance of their direct (e.g., selective grazing) and indirect effects (altering genotypic richness/diversity and abiotic environment) on ITV. We used exclosures at two successional stages in a Dutch saltmarsh, where grazing pressure at the early successional stage was ca. 1.5 times higher than that of the intermediate successional stage. We measured key functional traits of E. atherica including height, aboveground biomass, flowering (flower or not), specific leaf area, and leaf dry matter content in local communities (1 m × 1 m plots) inside and outside the exclosures. We determined genotypic richness and diversity of each plant using molecular markers. We further measured abiotic variations in topography and clay thickness (a proxy for soil total nitrogen). Structural equation models revealed that small herbivores significantly promoted ITV in height and flowering at the early successional stage, while they marginally promoted ITV in height at the intermediate successional stage. Moreover, the direct effects of herbivores played a major role in promoting ITV. Small herbivores decreased genotypic diversity at the intermediate successional stage, but genotypic richness and diversity did not impact ITV. Small herbivores did not alter topographic variation and variation in clay thickness, but these variations increased ITV in all traits at the early successional stage. Small herbivores may not only impact trait means in plants as studies have shown but also their ITV.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E Leventhal ◽  
Sarah Jamison-Todd ◽  
Carl Simpson

The evolution of trait variation among populations of animals is difficult to study due to the many overlapping genetic and environmental influences that control phenotypic expression. In a group of animals, bryozoans, it is possible to isolate genetic contributions to phenotypic variation, due to the modular nature of bryozoan colonies. Each bryozoan colony represents a snapshot of the phenotypes that correspond to a single genotype, which can be summarized as a phenotypic distribution. We test whether these phenotypic distributions are heritable across generations of colonies in two sister species of the bryozoan Stylopoma, grown and bred in a common garden breeding experiment. We find that components of phenotypic distributions, specifically median trait values of colony members, are heritable between generations of colonies. Furthermore, this heredity has macroevolutionary importance because it correlates with the morphological distance between these two species. Because parts of phenotypic distributions are heritable, and this heritability corresponds to evolutionary divergence between species, we infer that these distributions have the potential to evolve. The evolutionary potential of these phenotypic distributions may underpin the emergence of colony-level traits, like division of labor in colonies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nannan An ◽  
Nan Lu ◽  
Bojie Fu ◽  
Mengyu Wang ◽  
Nianpeng He

Leaf traits play key roles in plant resource acquisition and ecosystem processes; however, whether the effects of environment and phylogeny on leaf traits differ between herbaceous and woody species remains unclear. To address this, in this study, we collected data for five key leaf traits from 1,819 angiosperm species across 530 sites in China. The leaf traits included specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, leaf area, leaf N concentration, and leaf P concentration, all of which are closely related to trade-offs between resource uptake and leaf construction. We quantified the relative contributions of environment variables and phylogeny to leaf trait variation for all species, as well as for herbaceous and woody species separately. We found that environmental factors explained most of the variation (44.4–65.5%) in leaf traits (compared with 3.9–23.3% for phylogeny). Climate variability and seasonality variables, in particular, mean temperature of the warmest and coldest seasons of a year (MTWM/MTWQ and MTCM/MTCQ) and mean precipitation in the wettest and driest seasons of a year (MPWM/MPWQ and MPDM/MPDQ), were more important drivers of leaf trait variation than mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean annual precipitation (MAP). Furthermore, the responses of leaf traits to environment variables and phylogeny differed between herbaceous and woody species. Our study demonstrated the different effects of environment variables and phylogeny on leaf traits among different plant growth forms, which is expected to advance the understanding of plant adaptive strategies and trait evolution under different environmental conditions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 132 ◽  
pp. 108268
Author(s):  
Tiziana Di Lorenzo ◽  
Barbara Fiasca ◽  
Mattia Di Cicco ◽  
Marco Cifoni ◽  
Diana M.P. Galassi

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