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Genetic Consequences of Biologically Altered Environments.

Publication ,  Journal Article
D'Aguillo, M; Hazelwood, C; Quarles, B; Donohue, K
Published in: The Journal of heredity
February 2022

Evolvable traits of organisms can alter the environment those organisms experience. While it is well appreciated that those modified environments can influence natural selection to which organisms are exposed, they can also influence the expression of genetic variances and covariances of traits under selection. When genetic variance and covariance change in response to changes in the evolving, modified environment, rates and outcomes of evolution also change. Here we discuss the basic mechanisms whereby organisms modify their environments, review how those modified environments have been shown to alter genetic variance and covariance, and discuss potential evolutionary consequences of such dynamics. With these dynamics, responses to selection can be more rapid and sustained, leading to more extreme phenotypes, or they can be slower and truncated, leading to more conserved phenotypes. Patterns of correlated selection can also change, leading to greater or less evolutionary independence of traits, or even causing convergence or divergence of traits, even when selection on them is consistent across environments. Developing evolutionary models that incorporate changes in genetic variances and covariances when environments themselves evolve requires developing methods to predict how genetic parameters respond to environments-frequently multifactorial environments. It also requires a population-level analysis of how traits of collections of individuals modify environments for themselves and/or others in a population, possibly in spatially explicit ways. Despite the challenges of elucidating the mechanisms and nuances of these processes, even qualitative predictions of how environment-modifying traits alter evolutionary potential are likely to improve projections of evolutionary outcomes.

Duke Scholars

Published In

The Journal of heredity

DOI

EISSN

1465-7333

ISSN

0022-1503

Publication Date

February 2022

Volume

113

Issue

1

Start / End Page

26 / 36

Related Subject Headings

  • Selection, Genetic
  • Phenotype
  • Models, Genetic
  • Genetic Variation
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Biological Evolution
  • 3105 Genetics
  • 3104 Evolutionary biology
  • 0604 Genetics
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
D’Aguillo, M., Hazelwood, C., Quarles, B., & Donohue, K. (2022). Genetic Consequences of Biologically Altered Environments. The Journal of Heredity, 113(1), 26–36. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esab047
D’Aguillo, Michelle, Caleb Hazelwood, Brandie Quarles, and Kathleen Donohue. “Genetic Consequences of Biologically Altered Environments.The Journal of Heredity 113, no. 1 (February 2022): 26–36. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esab047.
D’Aguillo M, Hazelwood C, Quarles B, Donohue K. Genetic Consequences of Biologically Altered Environments. The Journal of heredity. 2022 Feb;113(1):26–36.
D’Aguillo, Michelle, et al. “Genetic Consequences of Biologically Altered Environments.The Journal of Heredity, vol. 113, no. 1, Feb. 2022, pp. 26–36. Epmc, doi:10.1093/jhered/esab047.
D’Aguillo M, Hazelwood C, Quarles B, Donohue K. Genetic Consequences of Biologically Altered Environments. The Journal of heredity. 2022 Feb;113(1):26–36.
Journal cover image

Published In

The Journal of heredity

DOI

EISSN

1465-7333

ISSN

0022-1503

Publication Date

February 2022

Volume

113

Issue

1

Start / End Page

26 / 36

Related Subject Headings

  • Selection, Genetic
  • Phenotype
  • Models, Genetic
  • Genetic Variation
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Biological Evolution
  • 3105 Genetics
  • 3104 Evolutionary biology
  • 0604 Genetics