Quantitative genetic and translocation experiments reveal genotype-by-environment effects on juvenile life-history traits in two populations of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2010

Publication Title

Journal of Evolutionary Biology

Volume

23

Issue

4

First Page

687

Last Page

698

Abstract

Understanding the genetic architecture of phenotypic plasticity is required to assess how populations might respond to heterogeneous or changing environments. Although several studies have examined population-level patterns in environmental heterogeneity and plasticity, few studies have examined individual-level variation in plasticity. Here, we use the North Carolina II breeding design and translocation experiments between two populations of Chinook salmon to detail the genetic architecture and plasticity of offspring survival and growth. We followed the survival of 50 800 offspring through the larval stage and used parentage analysis to examine survival and growth through freshwater rearing. In one population, we found that additive genetic, nonadditive genetic and maternal effects explained 25%, 34% and 55% of the variance in larvae survival, respectively. In the second population, these effects explained 0%, 24% and 61% of the variance in larvae survival. In contrast, fry survival was regulated primarily by additive genetic effects, which indicates a shift from maternal to genetic effects as development proceeds. Fry growth also showed strong additive genetic effects. Translocations between populations revealed that offspring survival and growth varied between environments, the degree of which differed among families. These results indicate genetic differences among individuals in their degree of plasticity and consequently their ability to respond to environmental variation.

DOI

10.1111/j.1420-9101.2010.01934.x

Comments

This is an accepted manuscript version of an article whose version of record was published in:Journal of Evolutionary Biology: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2010.01934.x

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