Epigenetic mechanisms impact several phenotypic traits and may be important for ecology and evolution. The introduced house sparrow (Passer domesticus) exhibits extensive phenotypic variation among and within populations. We screened methylation in populations from Kenya and Florida to determine if methylation varied among populations, varied with introduction history (Kenyan invasion <50 years...

This work postulates a mechanism by which random genotypic variation is directed towards favourable phenotypic variation. Evolvability is a poorly understood concept at present; it is unclear precisely how the genotype-phenotype map aligns random genotypic mutation with favourable phenotypic variation. By static analysis of the distribution of functionality within the genotype, an emergent bias...

Declines in genetic diversity within a species can affect the stability and functioning of populations. The conservation of genetic diversity is thus a priority, especially for threatened or endangered species. The importance of genetic variation, however, is dependent on the degree to which it translates into phenotypic variation for traits that affect individual performance and ecological pro...

salinity stress is a major limitation in wheat production. the lack of economically viable methods for screening salinity tolerance in field is an obstacle to breeders. in this study a population of 254 recombinant inbred lines (rils), derived from a cross between roshan × sabalan was assessed in glasshouse during the seedling phase in order to identify quantitative trait loci (qtls) for salini...

Genetic variation is the fundamental medium of evolution. In allopolyploids, which are the product of hybridization and whole genome duplication, if homologous chromosomes always pair, then all descendants of a single diploid F1 hybrid lineage will be genetically identical. Contrarily, genetic variation among initially isogenic lineages is augmented when homeologous chromosomes pair; this added...

Phenotypic diversity is considered beneficial to the evolution of contingent cooperation, in which cooperators channel their help preferentially towards others of similar phenotypes. However, it remains largely unclear how phenotypic variation arises in the first place and thus leads to the construction of phenotypic complexity. Here we propose a mathematical model to study the coevolutionary d...

Intraspecific phenotypic diversity is controlled by natural genetic and epigenetic variation. Kawakatsu et al. recently sequenced the DNA methylomes of a global collection of over 1000 Arabidopsis accessions, and have thereby provided a comprehensive resource for studying natural genetic and epigenetic variation as well as the association of such variation with phenotypic diversity.

The perceived bitterness intensity for bitter solutions of propylthiouracil (PROP), sucrose octa-acetate (SOA), quinine HCl and caffeine were examined in a genetically informative sample of 392 females and 313 males (mean age of 17.8 +/- 3.1 years), including 62 monozygotic and 131 dizygotic twin pairs and 237 sib pairs. Broad-sense heritabilities were estimated at 0.72, 0.28, 0.34, and 0.30 fo...