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Reply to: More evidence is needed to show that heritability and selection are not associated

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 3, page 1408 (2019)Cite this article

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The Original Article was published on 23 September 2019

replying to J. Brommer Nature Ecology & Evolution https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0989-9 (2019)

We agree with Brommer1 that identifying the best possible environmental proxy is crucial for drawing reliable inferences about genotype-by-environment interactions (GEI), that is, genetic variation in reaction norm slopes. This is, however, not feasible for many traits. Thus, researchers may be faced with the decision to refrain from analysing GEI altogether or, alternatively, follow the approach of using the environment-specific phenotypic means (\(\bar Y\)) as a proxy, which was criticized by Brommer. We cannot, however, fully follow the specific criticism outlined by Brommer.

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References

  1. Brommer, J. More evidence is needed to show that heritability and selection are not associated. Nat. Ecol. Evol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0989-9 (2019).

  2. Gienapp P. The choice of the environmental covariate affects the power to detect individual variation in reaction norm slopes. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/311217 (2018).

  3. Ramakers, J. J. C., Culina, A., Visser, M. E. & Gienapp, P. Environmental coupling of heritability and selection is rare and of minor evolutionary significance in wild populations. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 2, 1093–1103 (2018).

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Morrissey for his input in the discussion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Wageningen, the Netherlands

    Jip J. C. Ramakers, Antica Culina, Marcel E. Visser & Phillip Gienapp

  2. Mathematical and Statistical Methods Group (Biometris), Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands

    Jip J. C. Ramakers

  3. Michael-Otto-Institut im NABU, Bergenhusen, Germany

    Phillip Gienapp

Authors
  1. Jip J. C. Ramakers
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  2. Antica Culina
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  3. Marcel E. Visser
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  4. Phillip Gienapp
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Contributions

J.J.C.R. and P.G. drafted the manuscript; A.C. and M.E.V. critically reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jip J. C. Ramakers.

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Ramakers, J.J.C., Culina, A., Visser, M.E. et al. Reply to: More evidence is needed to show that heritability and selection are not associated. Nat Ecol Evol 3, 1408 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0991-2

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