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Summary: 1747
2003 The Society for the Study of Evolution. All rights reserved.
Evolution, 57(8), 2003, pp. 17471760
STABILITY OF THE G-MATRIX IN A POPULATION EXPERIENCING PLEIOTROPIC
MUTATION, STABILIZING SELECTION, AND GENETIC DRIFT
ADAM G. JONES,1,2 STEVAN J. ARNOLD,3 AND REINHARD BU¨ RGER4
1School of Biology, 310 Ferst Drive, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332
2E-mail: adam.jones@biology.gatech.edu
3Department of Zoology, 3029 Cordley Hall, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331
4Institut fu¨r Mathematik, Universita¨t Wien, A-1090 Wien, Austria
Abstract. Quantitative genetics theory provides a framework that predicts the effects of selection on a phenotype
consisting of a suite of complex traits. However, the ability of existing theory to reconstruct the history of selection
or to predict the future trajectory of evolution depends upon the evolutionary dynamics of the genetic variance-
covariance matrix (G-matrix). Thus, the central focus of the emerging field of comparative quantitative genetics is
the evolution of the G-matrix. Existing analytical theory reveals little about the dynamics of G, because the problem
is too complex to be mathematically tractable. As a first step toward a predictive theory of G-matrix evolution, our
goal was to use stochastic computer models to investigate factors that might contribute to the stability of G over
evolutionary time. We were concerned with the relatively simple case of two quantitative traits in a population
experiencing stabilizing selection, pleiotropic mutation, and random genetic drift. Our results show that G-matrix
stability is enhanced by strong correlational selection and large effective population size. In addition, the nature of
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