For this calculation, we used the morphological traits on the right side of the body.
Having ascertained the magnitude of the genetic relationship between these two groups of traits, the predictive ability of morphological traits on the pathologically descriptive traits was assessed using EBVs calculated from dogs scored at a young age and using them as predictors of phenotypes of offspring scored at a late age (see Materials and Methods).
Because sampling three females and males from each vial is not enough to evaluate CV of morphological traits accurately, we sampled five to seven extra individuals from each vial for measurement of the morphological traits on the right side of the body.
The results from analyses with selection indices further underline the genetic predictive value of the morphological traits on the pathology associated with hip dysplasia, with optimum selection coefficients yielding a 14% increase in accuracy (directly related to response to selection) over the current aggregate score at improving all nine traits.
The results from analyses of selection indices have not only quantitatively endorsed the conclusions of the predictive ability of the morphological traits on those describing pathology, but have also quantified the improvement achievable by use of either optimum coefficients derived from index theory, or aggregate scores of traits describing hip morphology only.
Projections based on regressions of morphological traits on tree cover show that deforestation has led to a severe flattening of the cline in morphology along the gradient in West Africa, with the exception of Sierra Leone, where considerable forest remains (Figures 1C and S1).
A first core collection (M-core) in grape was recently developed based on 50 morphological traits on 1759 accessions from the Vassal collection [ 28].
We analysed each of the recorded morphological traits on the two sets of 100 trees randomly sampled from the posterior distributions of phylograms and chronograms.
A high level of behavioural plasticity in host searching and host selection could be an explanatory factor for the macro-evolutionary patterns that we observed here, especially as behavioural traits have been shown to be less stable than physiological or morphological traits on evolutionary time-scales [ 42, 43].
These data are very consistent to those for the morphological traits on the same populations [ 16], and they confirm that seed flow occurs between seasons, as was also suggested by 5% of the farmers' fields during the collection, where a sequential cultivation of barley was seen in the two seasons.
