Phenotypic, genetic, and environmental integration of morphology in a stream population of the threespine stickleback,Gasterosteus aculeatus

Abstract

Phenotypic, genetic, and environmental variances and covariances for 33 morphometric traits were estimated for a population of threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, from the Brush Creek drainage, California, by sib analysis of laboratory-bred families. Heritabilities of the morphometric traits ranged from −0.28 to 0.78, and were moderately low (mean h2 = 0.26); the mean and range of heritabilities for five phenotypic eigenvectors were similar. The average coefficient of genetic determination of the traits and eigenvectors was high (0.57 and 0.63, respectively), indicating a substantial genotypic contribution to variation in body morphology. The defensive complex, a functional set of bony armor structures, was genetically and environmentally integrated: genetic factors (e.g., pleiotropy) are reinforced by environmental factors to produce a functional phenotype. Other components of morphology, including body form, were environmentally, but not genetically, integrated. Given the importance of genetic factors to evolutionary change under natural selection, these results implicate natural selection in the evolution of the defensive complex; the role of natural selection in the evolution of other components of morphology is equivocal. Genetic integration of functionally (phenotypically) independent traits suggests that stochastic processes or pleiotropic mutation also have played a role in the evolution of morphology in this population of sticklebacks.