Evolutionary Pattern and Process

本研究将为分析连续性状的进化模式提供新的方法。进化模式是性状随时间变化和共变的趋势。连续性状是表型性状中特别重要的一类。体型、形态测量、生理属性和许多行为特征在自然种群中表现出连续的变化，被称为连续特征。将开发的方法使用遗传模型（数量遗传），其中性状受到许多遗传因素的影响，每个遗传因素都有一个小的影响。要使用这些模型，必须分析它们的演化趋势。这些分析将通过比较近缘种吊带蛇（Thamnophis）多个种群中鳞片性状的遗传来完成。虽然有些性状受一个或几个基因的影响，但大多数性状表现为数量遗传。农业上重要的性状，如体型和精神分裂症等疾病，都是数量遗传性状的例子。要了解这些性状在短期和长期是如何变化的，就必须研究它们的遗传系统。即将开发的方法是解决受许多基因影响的性状遗传的长期趋势问题的首批方法之一。

9903934Arnold This study will develop new methods for analyzing evolutionary patterns in continuous characters. Evolutionary patterns are trends over time in the variation and covariation of characters. Continuous characters are a particularly important category of phenotypic traits. Body size, morphological measurements, physiological attributes, and many behavioral characteristics show continuous variation in natural populations and are referred to as continuous characters. The methods that will be developed use models of inheritance (quantitative inheritance) in which the characters are affected by many genetic elements, each of which has a small effect. To use these models, their evolution tendencies must be assayed. Those assays will be accomplished by comparing inheritance of scalation traits in multiple populations of closely related species of garter snake (Thamnophis).Although some characters are affected by one or a few genes, most characters show quantitative inheritance. Agriculturally important traits such as body size and such medical conditions as schizophrenia are examples of traits with quantitative inheritance. To understand how these traits change both in the short term and in the long run, their inheritance systems must be studied. The methods to be developed are among the first to address the issue of long term trends in the inheritance of characters affected by many genes.