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The Quantitative Genetics of Sexual Dimorphism

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Gender and Sexual Dimorphism in Flowering Plants

Abstract

Quantitative differences between male and female plants have been found for a wide range of characters (Lloyd and Webb 1977). In order to elucidate the underlying evolutionary properties of such characters, quantitative genetic approaches are useful because they enable assessment of both levels of genetic variation and also potential for evolutionary response to selection. Understanding of the quantitative genetic basis for sexually dimorphic characters can also provide insight into the differential selection acting on males and females that gives rise to sexually dimorphic characters by projecting backwards in time using standard iterative equations for phenotypic change. For example, the basic quantitative genetic equation for selection response, R = h2S, contains three terms: R (change in phenotype following selection), h2 (heritability, based on the level of genetic variance relative to overall phenotypic variance), and S (the selection differential); knowledge of any two terms in this equation enables calculation of the third. Thus, a retrospective analysis might utilize a putative starting point for the phenotypes, yielding R, and measures of the genetic variance, yielding h2, to evaluate S.

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  1. Thomas R. Meagher
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Ecology and Systematics, Cornell University, 14853-2701, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Monica A. Geber  & Todd E. Dawson  & 

  2. Dept. of Biology, Indiana University, 47405, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Lynda F. Delph

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Meagher, T.R. (1999). The Quantitative Genetics of Sexual Dimorphism. In: Geber, M.A., Dawson, T.E., Delph, L.F. (eds) Gender and Sexual Dimorphism in Flowering Plants. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03908-3_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03908-3_10

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-08424-9

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