BMC Evolutionary Biology | |
Can number and size of offspring increase simultaneously? - a central life-history trade-off reconsidered | |
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DOI : 10.1186/1471-2148-12-44 | |
来源: DOAJ |
【 摘 要 】
Abstract
Background
To maximize their fitness, parents are assumed to allocate their resources optimally between number and size of offspring. Although this fundamental life-history trade-off has been subject to long standing interest, its genetic basis, especially in wild mammals, still remains unresolved. One important reason for this problem is that a large multigenerational pedigree is required to conduct a reliable analysis of this trade-off.
Results
We used the REML-animal model to estimate genetic parameters for litter size and individual birth size for a common Palearctic small mammal, the bank vole (
Conclusions
Our results have notable implications for the study of the life-history trade-off between offspring number and size in mammals. The estimated genetic correlations suggest that evolution of offspring number and size in polytocous mammals is not constrained by the trade-off caused by antagonistic selection responses
【 授权许可】
Unknown