A genetic model of interpopulation variation and covariation of quantitative characters

Abstract

SummaryEvolutionary consequences of natural selection, migration, genotype–environment interaction, and random genetic drift on interpopulation variation and covariation of quantitative characters are analysed in terms of a selection model that partitions natural selection into directional and stabilizing components. Without migration, interpopulation variation and covariation depend mainly on the pattern and intensities of selection among populations and the harmonic mean of effective population sizes. Both transient and equilibrium covariance structures are formulated with suitable approximations. Migration reduces the differentiation among populations, but its effect is less with genotype–environment interaction. In some special cases of genotype–environment interaction, the equilibrium interpopulation variation and covariation is independent of migration.