Genetic Models of Natural Populations

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This project will initiate studies on the evolution of maternal effects. Mathematical models will be used to determine how the strengths of maternal effects (for example, lactation in mammals) evolve. We will study how these characters respond to selection and develop methods to measure their selection and inheritance in natural populations. Specific approaches that will be used to meet these two objectives will be the extention of a quantitative-genetic model recently introduced by the principal investigator and his collaborators, and the development of new statistical methods for estimating the parameters that appear in the models. Results form this work will specify the conditions under which maternal care will originate and be maintained, and empirical methods for testing the hypotheses generated by the theory.