TY - JOUR
T1 - Spontaneous mutational correlations for life-history, morphological and behavioral characters in Caenorhabditis elegans
AU - Estes, Suzanne
AU - Ajie, Beverly C.
AU - Lynch, Michael
AU - Phillips, Patrick C.
PY - 2005/6
Y1 - 2005/6
N2 - The pattern of mutational covariance among traits plays a central, but largely untested, role in many theories in evolutionary genetics. Here we estimate the pattern of phenotypic, environmental, and mutational correlations for a set of life-history, behavioral, and morphological traits using 67 self-fertilizing lines of Caenorhabditis elegans, each having independently experienced an average of 370 generations of spontaneous mutation accumulation. Bivariate relationships of mutational effects indicate the existence of extensive pleiotropy. We find that mutations may tend to produce manifold effects on suites of functionally related traits; however, our data do not support the idea of completely parcelated pleiotropy, in which functional units are separately affected by mutations. Positive net phenotypic and mutational correlations are common for life-history traits, with environmental correlations being comparatively smaller and of the same sign for most pairs of traits. Observed mutational correlations are shown to be higher than those produced by the chance accumulation of nonpleiotropic mutations in the same lines.
AB - The pattern of mutational covariance among traits plays a central, but largely untested, role in many theories in evolutionary genetics. Here we estimate the pattern of phenotypic, environmental, and mutational correlations for a set of life-history, behavioral, and morphological traits using 67 self-fertilizing lines of Caenorhabditis elegans, each having independently experienced an average of 370 generations of spontaneous mutation accumulation. Bivariate relationships of mutational effects indicate the existence of extensive pleiotropy. We find that mutations may tend to produce manifold effects on suites of functionally related traits; however, our data do not support the idea of completely parcelated pleiotropy, in which functional units are separately affected by mutations. Positive net phenotypic and mutational correlations are common for life-history traits, with environmental correlations being comparatively smaller and of the same sign for most pairs of traits. Observed mutational correlations are shown to be higher than those produced by the chance accumulation of nonpleiotropic mutations in the same lines.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=22144431904&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=22144431904&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1534/genetics.104.040022
DO - 10.1534/genetics.104.040022
M3 - Article
C2 - 15834140
AN - SCOPUS:22144431904
SN - 0016-6731
VL - 170
SP - 645
EP - 653
JO - Genetics
JF - Genetics
IS - 2
ER -