Abstract
Phenotypic differences among individuals are often linked to differential survival and mating success. Quantifying the relative influence of genetic and environmental variation on phenotype allows evolutionary biologists to make predictions about the potential for a given trait to respond to selection and various aspects of environmental variation. In particular, the environment individuals experience during early development can have lasting effects on phenotype later in life. Here, we used a natural full-sib/half-sib design as well as within-individual longitudinal analyses to examine genetic and various environmental influences on plumage color. We find that variation in melanin-based plumage color – a trait known to influence mating success in adult North American barn swallows (Hirundo rustica erythrogaster) – is influenced by both genetics and aspects of the developmental environment, including variation due to the maternal phenotype and the nest environment. Within individuals, nestling color is predictive of adult color. Accordingly, these early environmental influences are relevant to the sexually selected plumage color variation in adults. Early environmental conditions appear to have important lifelong implications for individual reproductive performance through sexual signal development in barn swallows. Our results indicate that feather color variation conveys information about developmental conditions and maternal care alleles to potential mates in North American barn swallows. Melanin-based colors are used for sexual signaling in many organisms, and our study suggests that these signals may be more sensitive to environmental variation than previously thought.
Highlights
Morphological signals including horns, antlers, and plumage ornaments are important aspects of an individual’s phenotype used to attract mates and defend territories and resources necessary for reproduction (Andersson 1994)
We modeled the linear relationship between color measured within the same individual at two different stages: as a nestling and as an adult in their first breeding season to Relative influence of genes and environment on juvenile plumage color expression Using mixed paternity broods to analyze the influence of genes and the environment on trait expression
This study revealed that variation in plumage color was largely explained by the prelaying maternal environment, which differs from the nest environment as related offspring raised in different nesting attempts within and across breeding seasons will experience different nest conditions, but are likely to experience the same prelaying maternal environment
Summary
Morphological signals including horns, antlers, and plumage ornaments are important aspects of an individual’s phenotype used to attract mates and defend territories and resources necessary for reproduction (Andersson 1994). Understanding how populationlevel trait variation has been shaped by selection and how environmental context impacts trait development and expression in an individual can provide insight into the information content of these traits. This information about sources of variation is useful for understanding inheritance of traits and how variation is maintained (Miller and Moore 2007). This can be interesting when studying signal traits that are newly developed each year
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