We detect natural selection on a suite of phenological and morphological traits in the greenhouse in non-saline environments, traits associated with faster vegetative growth rates are favored by selection, while in saline environments traits associated with salinity tolerance (e.g., increased leaf water content) and earlier germination and flowering are favored (Table 2).
In order to estimate the genetic correlation between performance measured in the two environments, traits measured in France (F) and Taiwan (T) were treated as distinct BW16T and BW16F, the subscript indicating the environment.
After the mean values were normalized for each environment, trait values for each line in all environments were averaged, and used for genome-wide mapping.
Based on the present study, it would seem that artificial selection has only altered the mean across-environment trait and not the reaction norm itself, although a study of backcrossed farmed and wild Atlantic salmon from the same region did yield significant differences in reaction norms for traits in early life (Darwish and Hutchings 2009).
In agreement with the notion that morphological parameters are highly heritable and least affected by environment, traits related to body and cardiac weight were the most consistent with independent studies.
We also provide access to genome interpretations as produced by the Genomes-Environments-Trait (GET -Evidence system, which provides a mechanism for continued improvement in GET -Evidenceretation and annotation through participant engagement and community review of the systemific literature [ 8].
ACMG: American College of Medical Genetics GETT: Genome-Environment-Trait; PGP: Personal Genome Project.
In phenotypically plastic traits, environment-trait associations reflect immediate environmental responses rather than local genetic adaptation, and selective change might be buffered in complex ways (Sultan 2007).
For example, much research in the past decade investigates moderation of environment-trait correlations by candidate genes, following one of the most highly cited papers in the behavioral sciences reporting that the influence of life stress on depression depends on DNA variation in a serotonin transporter (Caspi et al. 2003).
From a practical perspective, genomic random regression models can be used to predict genomic breeding values for scarce phenotypes (e.g., novel traits) traits measured in extreme environments, or traits measured late in life, such as longevity.
Our working model is given by a ∼ N (0, G a ⊗ I (r − c ) n f ), where G a specifies a model for the genetic variances for environments or traits and covariances between environments and traits for the sizes of potential QTL effects.
