Quantifying heritability and estimating evolutionary potential in the wild when individuals that share genes also share environments

作者：Laura Gervais, Nicolas Morellet, Ingrid David, Mark Hewison, Denis Réale, Goulard Michel, Yannick Chaval, Bruno Lourtet, Bruno Cargnelutti, Joël Merlet, Erwan Quéméré, Benoît Pujol · 发表于：Journal of Animal Ecology · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.1111/1365-2656.13677 · 被引用次数：25 · 研究领域：Wildlife Ecology and Conservation、Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock、Animal Behavior and Reproduction

Accurate heritability estimates for fitness-related traits are required to predict an organism's ability to respond to global change. Heritability estimates are theoretically expected to be inflated if, due to limited dispersal, individuals that share genes are also likely to share similar environments. However, if relatives occupy similar environments due, at least partly, to genetic variation for habitat selection, then accounting for environmental similarity in quantitative genetic models may result in diminished heritability estimates in wild populations. This potential issue has been pointed out in the literature, but has not been evaluated by empirical studies. Here, we investigate whether environmental similarity among individuals can be partly explained by genetic variation for habitat selection, and how this link potentially blurs estimates for heritability in fitness-related traits. Using intensive GPS monitoring, we quantified home-range habitat composition for 293 roe deer inhabiting a heterogeneous landscape to assess environmental similarity. To investigate if environmental similarity might harbour genetic variation, we combined genome-wide data in a quantitative genetic framework to evaluate genetic variation for home-range habitat composition, which is partly the result of habitat selection at settlement. Finally, we explored how environmental similarity affects heritability estimates for behaviours related to the risk avoidance-resource acquisition trade-off ...