The phrase "as a single trait" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing a specific characteristic or quality that is considered individually rather than as part of a group or combination.
Example: "In the context of personality assessments, we often evaluate individuals as a single trait to understand their dominant characteristics."
Alternatives: "as an individual characteristic" or "as a distinct quality".
As a single trait, successful risk-taking is universally appreciated as a sign of good genes.
Researcher Todd Kashdan claims that curiosity simply can't be defined as a single trait; it actually has multiple dimensions.
Divergent genetic selection for wool growth as a single trait has led to major changes in sheep physiology and metabolism, including variations in rumen microbial protein production and uptake of α-amino nitrogen in portal blood.
Heterosis is often treated as a single trait such that specific hybrids are referred to as highly or lowly heterotic.
The diagnostic and prognostic value of 2D∶4D as a single trait marker or in combination with other trait as well as state markers has to be investigated in future studies under clinical routine conditions using internal and external validation.
Although mean longevity differed between mated and unmated females, it was strongly positively genetically correlated between mated and unmated females (rA = 1.34±0.58 s.e)., and thus female longevity is treated as a single trait, with number of matings (1, 2 or 0) fitted as a fixed effect.
As shown for a single trait by Weigel et al. [ 5], a low-density assay comprising selected SNP can deliver a substantial portion of the gain of a high-density assay, possibly for a fraction of the price.
As long as we assume that only a single trait is variable (and independent from others) and that all individuals of the colony do not have any further behavioural options, this perspective is also valid at the individual and the genetic level.
However, this approach treats SNPs and traits as independent units, and overlooks relationships in which multiple SNPs jointly affect a single trait or multiple traits as well as pleiotropy, where one genetic locus influences multiple phenotypic traits.
Here, we will use individual-based simulations of a population with a density-regulated carrying capacity where the environment is allowed to fluctuate in terms of a consistent trend and degree of autocorrelation and where we explicitly analyze the effect of different levels of selection and heritability of a single trait such as body size.
Understanding the causes of phylogenetic signal for even a single trait is difficult, as numerous factors can limit changes over evolutionary time (e.g. slow diversification rates, insufficient time, strong selection, morphological constraints and trade-offs; Wiens et al. 2010).
