Abstract
Indirect genetic effects (IGEs) are environmental influences on the phenotype of one individual that are due to the expression of genes in a different, conspecific, individual. Historically, work has focused on the influence of parents on offspring but recent advances have extended this perspective to interactions among other relatives and even unrelated individuals. IGEs lead to complicated pathways of inheritance, where environmental sources of variation can be transmitted across generations and therefore contribute to evolutionary change. The existence of IGEs alters the genotype-phenotype relationship, changing the evolutionary process in some dramatic and non-intuitive ways.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 64-69 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Trends in Ecology and Evolution |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Feb 1998 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank J. Bernardo, K. Donohue, F. Janzen, E. Lacey, M. Maple, J. Schmitt and A. Sih, for insightful discussions about the role of indirect genetic effects in evolution and ecology, and T. Mousseau for helpful input. Thanks to M. Maple and S. Debano for their careful comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship to J.B.W., NSF IBN-9514063, DEB-9521821 and IBN-9616203 as well as State and Federal Hatch support to A.J.M. and DEB-9509295 and IBN-9600775 to E.D.B.III. J.B.W. and E.D.B.III were at the Center for Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, T.H. Morgan School of Biological Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, USA, during the preparation of this article.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics