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Feasibility and Uncertainty in Behavior Genetics for the Nonhuman Primate

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Abstract

The analysis of phenotypic covariances among genetically related individuals is the basis for estimations of genetic and phenotypic effects on phenotypes. Beyond heritability, there are several other estimates that can be made with behavior genetic models of interest to primatologists. Some of these estimates are feasible with primate samples because they take advantage of the types of relatives available to compare in primate species and because most behaviors are expressed orders of magnitude more often and in a greater variety of contexts than morphological or life-history traits. The hypotheses that can be tested with these estimates are contrasted with hypotheses that will be difficult to achieve in primates because of sample size limitations. Feasible comparisons include the proportion of variance from interaction effects, the variation of genetic effects across environments, and the genetics of growth and development. Simulation shows that uncertainty of genetic parameters can be reduced by sampling each individual more than once. Because sample sizes are likely to remain relatively small in most primate behavior genetics, expressing uncertainty in parameter estimates is needed to move our inferences forward.

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Acknowledgments

I thank Matt Robinson and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on this manuscript. I am indebted to Alex Weiss, Ana Maria Fernández, Jarrod Hadfield, Lauren Brent, Loeske Kruuk, Luis Apiolaza, Jocelyn Poissant, Elisabeth Bolund, Anna Santure, and Isabel Winney for their high-yielding discussions that prompted me to write this all down. I also thank Antje Engelhardt for inviting me to speak on these topics.

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  1. Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK

    Mark James Adams

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Correspondence to Mark James Adams.

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Adams, M.J. Feasibility and Uncertainty in Behavior Genetics for the Nonhuman Primate. Int J Primatol 35, 156–168 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-013-9722-8

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