The Geometry of Genetic Limits to Evolutionary Change

对进化变化的遗传限制是植物和动物改良以及理解自然种群如何应对人类引起的变化(如栖息地退化和气候变化)的一个基本问题。由于我们仍然对遗传变异在这种情况下可能对选择作出反应的多个性状之间的分布知之甚少，我们无法直接衡量任何自然种群的进化潜力。在这项建议中，我们发展了理论、统计工具和实验设计来调查这些多变量遗传限制的性质和流行程度。

Genetic limits to evolutionary change are a fundamental issue for plant and animal improvement, as well as understanding how natural populations may respond to human-induced changes such as habitat degradation and climate change. Because we still know very little about how genetic variation is distributed among the multiple traits that are likely to respond to selection in such circumstances, we have no way of directly measuring the evolutionary potential of any natural population. In this proposal, we develop the theory, statistical tools, and experimental designs to investigate the nature and prevalence of these multivariate genetic constraints.