Regulatory and developmental systems produce phenotypes that are robust to environmental and genetic variation. A gene product that normally contributes to this robustness is termed a phenotypic capacitor. When a phenotypic capacitor fails, for example when challenged by a harsh environment or mutation, the system becomes less robust and thus produces greater phenotypic variation. A functional ...

There has been a large focus on the genetics of traits involved in adaptation, but knowledge of the environmental variables leading to adaptive changes is surprisingly poor. Combined use of environmental data with morphological and genomic data should allow us to understand the extent to which patterns of phenotypic and genetic diversity within a species can be explained by the structure of the...

Fish inhabit environments greatly varying in intensity of water velocity, and these flow regimes are generally believed to be of major evolutionary significance. To what extent does water flow drive repeatable and predictable phenotypic differentiation? Although many investigators have examined phenotypic variation across flow gradients in fishes, no clear consensus regarding the nature of wate...

—Phenotypic diversity provides ecological and evolutionary functions, stabilizing populations in variable environments. Although benefits of larger body size in juvenile fishes are well documented, size variation may have value as well. We explored the distribution of length and length variation in age-0 westslope cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi at three spatial scales: area (10 km)...

Hormones are chemical signaling molecules that regulate patterns of cellular physiology and gene expression underlying phenotypic traits. Hormone-signaling pathways respond to an organism's external environment to mediate developmental stage-specific malleability in phenotypes, so that environmental variation experienced at different stages of development has distinct effects on an organism's p...

Understanding the genetic basis of phenotypic variation is essential for predicting the direction and rate of phenotypic evolution. We estimated heritabilities and genetic correlations of morphological (fork length, pectoral and pelvic fin ray counts, and gill arch raker counts) and life-history (egg number and individual egg weight) traits of pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) from Likes Cre...

We have explored the genetic basis of variation in vernalization requirement and response in Arabidopsis accessions, selected on the basis of their phenotypic distinctiveness. Phenotyping of F2 populations in different environments, plus fine mapping, indicated possible causative genes. Our data support the identification of FRI and FLC as candidates for the major-effect QTL underlying variatio...

Natural populations often show variation in traits that can affect the strength of interspecific interactions. Interaction strengths in turn influence the fate of pairwise interacting populations and the stability of food webs. Understanding the mechanisms relating individual phenotypic variation to interaction strengths is thus central to assess how trait variation affects population and commu...

bean root rot caused by plant pathogenic fungus, fusarium solani, is considered one of the most important diseases of bean in the world and in iran. because of economic importance of bean and the lack of information on population diversity of the pathogen in zanjan province, a research was conducted to study phenotypic, genotypic and pathogenicity variation of pathogen isolates and to assess pa...

Phenotypic variation among individuals is necessary for natural selection to operate and is therefore essential for adaptive evolution. However, extensive variation within individuals can mask variation among individuals and weaken the potential for selection. Here we quantify variation among and within individuals in female cone and seed traits of whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis). In many pla...