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Relating Stomatal Conductance to Leaf Functional Traits
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Trait heritability in major transitions.

Matthew D Herron1, Seyed A Zamani-Dahaj2, William C Ratcliff3

  • 1School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, North Avenue, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA. xprinceps@gmail.com.

BMC Biology
|December 15, 2018
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Collective-level heritability often exceeds particle-level heritability, supporting major evolutionary transitions. This higher heritability for group traits arises naturally, impacting multilevel selection theories.

Keywords:
EvolutionHeritabilityMajor transitionsMulticellularityQuantitative geneticsSimulations

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Theoretical Biology
  • Genetics

Background:

  • The major transitions framework explains increases in biological complexity and life's hierarchy.
  • Adaptation after major transitions primarily occurs at the higher, collective level.
  • Collective-level traits must be heritable for collective adaptation, linking to particle-level heritability.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the relationship between particle-level and collective-level heritability.
  • To determine how collective-level trait values, expressed as functions of particle-level traits, influence heritability.
  • To explore the implications for major transitions and multilevel selection.

Main Methods:

  • Examined mathematical relationships between particle-level and collective-level heritability.
  • Analyzed various functions describing collective traits based on particle traits.
  • Considered clonal populations, linear and complex trait functions, and environmental heterogeneity.

Main Results:

  • For linear functions in clonal populations with fixed group size, collective heritability is generally higher than particle heritability.
  • Collective heritability often exceeds particle heritability for more complex functions, except in heterogeneous environments.
  • Within-genotype variation in collective size can reduce collective heritability, but it can still surpass particle heritability.

Conclusions:

  • Collective-level heritability is frequently higher than particle-level heritability, facilitating major evolutionary transitions.
  • High collective heritability can arise without additional evolutionary mechanisms.
  • Findings have significant implications for understanding major transitions and general principles of multilevel selection.