Constraints on the evolution of attractive traits: genetic (co)variance of zebra finch bill colour

We estimated the heritability and genetic correlation between male and female bill colour in a laboratory population of zebra finches ( Taeniopygia guttata ) in order to examine the potential genetic constraints on the evolution of a sexually dimorphic trait. The heritability estimates of bill colou...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Heredity 1993-10, Vol.71 (4), p.405-412
Main Authors: Price, Donald K, Burley, Nancy Tyler
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Biological Evolution
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Birds - genetics
Classical genetics, quantitative genetics, hybrids
Color
Cytogenetics
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Genetic Variation
Genetics of eukaryotes. Biological and molecular evolution
Human Genetics
Male
original-article
Phenotype
Pigmentation - genetics
Plant Genetics and Genomics
Sex Characteristics
Taeniopygia guttata
Vertebrata
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Summary:We estimated the heritability and genetic correlation between male and female bill colour in a laboratory population of zebra finches ( Taeniopygia guttata ) in order to examine the potential genetic constraints on the evolution of a sexually dimorphic trait. The heritability estimates of bill colour from regressions of offspring on single parents ranged from h 2 = 0.34 to 0.73 and all but one of these estimates were significantly greater than zero. The restricted maximum likelihood heritability estimates for full- and half-siblings were significant for females ( h 2 = 0.48) but not significant for males ( h 2 = 0.45). The maximum likelihood estimates indicate that there is little dominance genetic variance for bill colour. The large genetic correlation between male and female bill colour ( r g = 0.91) combined with opposing selection on male and female bill colour indicates that the evolution to sex-specific optima may proceed very slowly.
ISSN:0018-067X
1365-2540
DOI:10.1038/hdy.1993.155