Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 281, Issue 1789, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.1082
Keywords
aerobic capacity; climate change; egg size; evolutionary potential; heart rate; maternal effects
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Funding
- Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada
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With global temperatures projected to surpass the limits of thermal tolerance for many species, evaluating the heritable variation underlying thermal tolerance is critical for understanding the potential for adaptation to climate change. We examined the evolutionary potential of thermal tolerance within a population of chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) by conducting a full-factorial breeding design and measuring the thermal performance of cardiac function and the critical thermal maximum (CTmax) of offspring from each family. Additive genetic variation in offspring phenotypewas mostly negligible, although these direct genetic effects explained 53% of the variation in resting heart rate (f(H)). Conversely, maternal effects had a significant influence on resting f(H), scope for f(H), cardiac arrhythmia temperature and CTmax. These maternal effects were associated with egg size, as indicated by strong relationships between the mean egg diameter of mothers and offspring thermal tolerance. Because egg size can be highly heritable in chinook salmon, our finding indicates that the maternal effects of egg size constitute an indirect genetic effect contributing to thermal tolerance. Such indirect genetic effects could accelerate evolutionary responses to the selection imposed by rising temperatures and could contribute to the population-specific thermal tolerance that has recently been uncovered among Pacific salmon populations.
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