Study Questions - Quantitative Traits
Readings - chapter 9
1) Why will phenotypic variation appear more continuous as the number of genes and environmental factors influencing that trait increase?
2) Why will quantitative traits probably be correlated with other traits?
3) What is a "genotype by environment" interaction?
4) What's the definition between broad-sene and narrow-sense heritability?
5) Consider this selection experiment:
An initial population of has an average of 45 bristles on their abdomen when raised under specific environmental conditions.
You select 10 flies to mate, and they have an average bristle number of 55.
Their offspring, raised under the same environment, have an average bristle number of 50.
What is the narrow-sense heritability?
If you examined another population under the same environmental conditions, should you expect the same value? Why or why not?
If you conduct this experiment under radically different environmental conditions, should you expect the same heritability?
6) Explain why many genetically-determine traits show little heritability.
7) IN QTL mapping, what attributes must 'markers' have?
8) What is the general goal of QTL? How, in general, is this goal achieved with the use of markers?
9) In M. cardinalis and M. lewisii, what evidence confirmed that pollinator selection may have driven morphological divergence between the species?