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Morphometric Variation at Different Spatial Scales: Coordination and Compensation in the Emergence of Organismal Form

It is a classic aim of quantitative and evolutionary biology to infer genetic architecture and potential evolutionary responses to selection from the variance–covariance structure of measured traits. But a meaningful genetic or developmental interpretation of raw covariances is difficult, and classi...

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Autores principales: Mitteroecker, Philipp, Bartsch, Silvester, Erkinger, Corinna, Grunstra, Nicole D S, Le Maître, Anne, Bookstein, Fred L
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7440742/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32011716
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syaa007
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author Mitteroecker, Philipp
Bartsch, Silvester
Erkinger, Corinna
Grunstra, Nicole D S
Le Maître, Anne
Bookstein, Fred L
author_facet Mitteroecker, Philipp
Bartsch, Silvester
Erkinger, Corinna
Grunstra, Nicole D S
Le Maître, Anne
Bookstein, Fred L
author_sort Mitteroecker, Philipp
collection PubMed
description It is a classic aim of quantitative and evolutionary biology to infer genetic architecture and potential evolutionary responses to selection from the variance–covariance structure of measured traits. But a meaningful genetic or developmental interpretation of raw covariances is difficult, and classic concepts of morphological integration do not directly apply to modern morphometric data. Here, we present a new morphometric strategy based on the comparison of morphological variation across different spatial scales. If anatomical elements vary completely independently, then their variance accumulates at larger scales or for structures composed of multiple elements: morphological variance would be a power function of spatial scale. Deviations from this pattern of “variational self-similarity” (serving as a null model of completely uncoordinated growth) indicate genetic or developmental coregulation of anatomical components. We present biometric strategies and R scripts for identifying patterns of coordination and compensation in the size and shape of composite anatomical structures. In an application to human cranial variation, we found that coordinated variation and positive correlations are prevalent for the size of cranial components, whereas their shape was dominated by compensatory variation, leading to strong canalization of cranial shape at larger scales. We propose that mechanically induced bone formation and remodeling are key mechanisms underlying compensatory variation in cranial shape. Such epigenetic coordination and compensation of growth are indispensable for stable, canalized development and may also foster the evolvability of complex anatomical structures by preserving spatial and functional integrity during genetic responses to selection.[Cranial shape; developmental canalization; evolvability; morphological integration; morphometrics; phenotypic variation; self-similarity.]
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spelling pubmed-74407422020-08-25 Morphometric Variation at Different Spatial Scales: Coordination and Compensation in the Emergence of Organismal Form Mitteroecker, Philipp Bartsch, Silvester Erkinger, Corinna Grunstra, Nicole D S Le Maître, Anne Bookstein, Fred L Syst Biol Regular Articles It is a classic aim of quantitative and evolutionary biology to infer genetic architecture and potential evolutionary responses to selection from the variance–covariance structure of measured traits. But a meaningful genetic or developmental interpretation of raw covariances is difficult, and classic concepts of morphological integration do not directly apply to modern morphometric data. Here, we present a new morphometric strategy based on the comparison of morphological variation across different spatial scales. If anatomical elements vary completely independently, then their variance accumulates at larger scales or for structures composed of multiple elements: morphological variance would be a power function of spatial scale. Deviations from this pattern of “variational self-similarity” (serving as a null model of completely uncoordinated growth) indicate genetic or developmental coregulation of anatomical components. We present biometric strategies and R scripts for identifying patterns of coordination and compensation in the size and shape of composite anatomical structures. In an application to human cranial variation, we found that coordinated variation and positive correlations are prevalent for the size of cranial components, whereas their shape was dominated by compensatory variation, leading to strong canalization of cranial shape at larger scales. We propose that mechanically induced bone formation and remodeling are key mechanisms underlying compensatory variation in cranial shape. Such epigenetic coordination and compensation of growth are indispensable for stable, canalized development and may also foster the evolvability of complex anatomical structures by preserving spatial and functional integrity during genetic responses to selection.[Cranial shape; developmental canalization; evolvability; morphological integration; morphometrics; phenotypic variation; self-similarity.] Oxford University Press 2020-09 2020-02-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7440742/ /pubmed/32011716 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syaa007 Text en © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Systematic Biologists. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contactjournals.permissions@oup.com
spellingShingle Regular Articles
Mitteroecker, Philipp
Bartsch, Silvester
Erkinger, Corinna
Grunstra, Nicole D S
Le Maître, Anne
Bookstein, Fred L
Morphometric Variation at Different Spatial Scales: Coordination and Compensation in the Emergence of Organismal Form
title Morphometric Variation at Different Spatial Scales: Coordination and Compensation in the Emergence of Organismal Form
title_full Morphometric Variation at Different Spatial Scales: Coordination and Compensation in the Emergence of Organismal Form
title_fullStr Morphometric Variation at Different Spatial Scales: Coordination and Compensation in the Emergence of Organismal Form
title_full_unstemmed Morphometric Variation at Different Spatial Scales: Coordination and Compensation in the Emergence of Organismal Form
title_short Morphometric Variation at Different Spatial Scales: Coordination and Compensation in the Emergence of Organismal Form
title_sort morphometric variation at different spatial scales: coordination and compensation in the emergence of organismal form
topic Regular Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7440742/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32011716
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syaa007
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