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1 December 2011 Narrow-Sense Heritability of Body Size and Its Response to Different Developmental Temperatures in Culex quinquefasciatus (Say 1923)
Filiz Gunay, Bulent Alten, Ergi D. Ozsoy
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Abstract

Body size is an important trait involved in overall fitness through its effects on mating success, fecundity, resource acquisition and mortality, and desiccation resistance. In this study, we raised inbred Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito cohorts at different developmental temperatures of 20°, 23°, and 27° C. As an indicator of the amount of genetic variation in body size, we estimated the narrow-sense heritability of body sizes defined as wing aspect ratios. Our results show that narrow-sense heritability of the body size increased as the developmental temperature increased. We also detected the presence of strong genotype-by-environment (G × E) interaction from low cross-environmental correlations. The body size of each temperature regime followed the general rule that higher temperatures produce smaller individuals. We suggest that the increase in genetic variation with increasing temperature might be due to an unleashing of the cryptic genetic variation of the putative genes affecting body size. We conclude that this increase in genetic variation tracking the environmental (developmental temperature) change could have considerable implications for the distribution and range expansion of Cx. quinquefasciatus, especially in warmer environments.

Filiz Gunay, Bulent Alten, and Ergi D. Ozsoy "Narrow-Sense Heritability of Body Size and Its Response to Different Developmental Temperatures in Culex quinquefasciatus (Say 1923)," Journal of Vector Ecology 36(2), 348-354, (1 December 2011). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1948-7134.2011.00175.x
Received: 6 May 2011; Accepted: 26 July 2011; Published: 1 December 2011
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KEYWORDS
body size
Culex quinquefasciatus
genotype-by-environment interaction
narrow-sense heritability
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