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Heritability of head size in a hunted large carnivore, the brown bear (Ursus arctos)

Wild animal populations experience selection pressures from both natural and anthropogenic sources. The availability of extensive pedigrees is increasing along with our ability to quantify the heritability and evolvability of phenotypic traits and thus the speed and potential for evolutionary change...

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Autores principales: Rivrud, Inger Maren, Frank, Shane C., Bischof, Richard, Mysterud, Atle, Steyaert, Sam M. J. G., Hertel, Anne G., Hagen, Snorre B., Eiken, Hans Geir, Swenson, Jon E., Zedrosser, Andreas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6597896/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31297144
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/eva.12786
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author Rivrud, Inger Maren
Frank, Shane C.
Bischof, Richard
Mysterud, Atle
Steyaert, Sam M. J. G.
Hertel, Anne G.
Hagen, Snorre B.
Eiken, Hans Geir
Swenson, Jon E.
Zedrosser, Andreas
author_facet Rivrud, Inger Maren
Frank, Shane C.
Bischof, Richard
Mysterud, Atle
Steyaert, Sam M. J. G.
Hertel, Anne G.
Hagen, Snorre B.
Eiken, Hans Geir
Swenson, Jon E.
Zedrosser, Andreas
author_sort Rivrud, Inger Maren
collection PubMed
description Wild animal populations experience selection pressures from both natural and anthropogenic sources. The availability of extensive pedigrees is increasing along with our ability to quantify the heritability and evolvability of phenotypic traits and thus the speed and potential for evolutionary change in wild populations. The environment may also affect gene expressions in individuals, which may in turn affect the potential of phenotypic traits to respond to selection. Knowledge about the relationship between the genetic and environmental components of phenotypic variation is particularly relevant, given ongoing anthropogenically driven global change. Using a quantitative genetic mixed model, we disentangled the genetic and environmental components of phenotypic variance in a large carnivore, the brown bear (Ursus arctos). We combined a pedigree covering ~1,500 individual bears over seven generations with location data from 413 bears, as well as data on bear density, habitat characteristics, and climatic conditions. We found a narrow‐sense heritability of 0.24 (95% CrI: 0.06–0.38) for brown bear head size, showing that the trait can respond to selection at a moderate speed. The environment contributed substantially to phenotypic variation, and we partitioned this into birth year (5.9%), nonadditive among‐individual genetic (15.0%), and residual (50.4%) environmental effects. Brown bear head circumference showed an evolvability of 0.2%, which can generate large changes in the trait mean over some hundreds of generations. Our study is among the first to quantify heritability of a trait in a hunted large carnivore population. Such knowledge about the degree to which species experiencing hunting can respond to selection is crucial for conservation and to make informed management decisions. We show that including important environmental variables when analyzing heritability is key to understanding the dynamics of the evolutionary potential of phenotypic traits.
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spelling pubmed-65978962019-07-11 Heritability of head size in a hunted large carnivore, the brown bear (Ursus arctos) Rivrud, Inger Maren Frank, Shane C. Bischof, Richard Mysterud, Atle Steyaert, Sam M. J. G. Hertel, Anne G. Hagen, Snorre B. Eiken, Hans Geir Swenson, Jon E. Zedrosser, Andreas Evol Appl Original Articles Wild animal populations experience selection pressures from both natural and anthropogenic sources. The availability of extensive pedigrees is increasing along with our ability to quantify the heritability and evolvability of phenotypic traits and thus the speed and potential for evolutionary change in wild populations. The environment may also affect gene expressions in individuals, which may in turn affect the potential of phenotypic traits to respond to selection. Knowledge about the relationship between the genetic and environmental components of phenotypic variation is particularly relevant, given ongoing anthropogenically driven global change. Using a quantitative genetic mixed model, we disentangled the genetic and environmental components of phenotypic variance in a large carnivore, the brown bear (Ursus arctos). We combined a pedigree covering ~1,500 individual bears over seven generations with location data from 413 bears, as well as data on bear density, habitat characteristics, and climatic conditions. We found a narrow‐sense heritability of 0.24 (95% CrI: 0.06–0.38) for brown bear head size, showing that the trait can respond to selection at a moderate speed. The environment contributed substantially to phenotypic variation, and we partitioned this into birth year (5.9%), nonadditive among‐individual genetic (15.0%), and residual (50.4%) environmental effects. Brown bear head circumference showed an evolvability of 0.2%, which can generate large changes in the trait mean over some hundreds of generations. Our study is among the first to quantify heritability of a trait in a hunted large carnivore population. Such knowledge about the degree to which species experiencing hunting can respond to selection is crucial for conservation and to make informed management decisions. We show that including important environmental variables when analyzing heritability is key to understanding the dynamics of the evolutionary potential of phenotypic traits. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2019-03-21 /pmc/articles/PMC6597896/ /pubmed/31297144 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/eva.12786 Text en © 2019 The Authors. Evolutionary Applications published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Articles
Rivrud, Inger Maren
Frank, Shane C.
Bischof, Richard
Mysterud, Atle
Steyaert, Sam M. J. G.
Hertel, Anne G.
Hagen, Snorre B.
Eiken, Hans Geir
Swenson, Jon E.
Zedrosser, Andreas
Heritability of head size in a hunted large carnivore, the brown bear (Ursus arctos)
title Heritability of head size in a hunted large carnivore, the brown bear (Ursus arctos)
title_full Heritability of head size in a hunted large carnivore, the brown bear (Ursus arctos)
title_fullStr Heritability of head size in a hunted large carnivore, the brown bear (Ursus arctos)
title_full_unstemmed Heritability of head size in a hunted large carnivore, the brown bear (Ursus arctos)
title_short Heritability of head size in a hunted large carnivore, the brown bear (Ursus arctos)
title_sort heritability of head size in a hunted large carnivore, the brown bear (ursus arctos)
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6597896/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31297144
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/eva.12786
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