J M Pemberton

..In outbred diploid populations, the pedigree approach is superior to analyses based on marker-based pairwise estimators of coancestry...

..We also tested whether inbreeding depression varied with environmental conditions and maternal age...

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..Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that both resistance and susceptibility are active responses to infection and that susceptibility is associated with dysfunction in T cell differentiation and regulation...

..Assumptions of environmental constancy are likely to be violated in natural systems, and failure to acknowledge this may generate highly misleading expectations for phenotypic microevolution...

..Our findings reveal processes that may shape variation in parasite resistance in natural populations and illustrate the importance of accounting for correlated traits in selection analysis...

..This study provides new insights on dispersal of a strongly polygynous mammal at geographical scales relevant for management and conservation...

..Although we demonstrate that low rates of F1 hybridization can lead to substantial introgression, the progress of hybridization and introgression appears to be unpredictable over the short timescales...

..The pursuit of more detailed pedigrees offers the best prospect for identifying inbreeding depression within this study population...

..However, in adult hosts, strongyles and coccidia were independently and negatively associated with host weight. These results are consistent with the idea that strongyles and coccidia are exerting independent selection on Soay sheep...

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..These results add to the growing evidence that conditions experienced by individuals during development can have a profound influence on immediate and late-life performance and may even influence ageing...

..The results of this study highlight the potential for protozoal infection to shape the evolution of parasite resistance in wild host populations harbouring diverse parasite species...

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..The most striking result was the confirmation of a QTL affecting birth weight that had been reported using association tests but not when using linkage-based analyses...

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..The modified form shows less bias in its estimates of heritability than the likelihood technique originally proposed...

..67, whereas the half-sib design has power of just 0.21. We conclude that detecting QTL may be possible in intensively studied natural populations, provided detailed life history data and good pedigree information are available...

..For these reasons, census-based observations of consort associations between individuals cannot be used to accurately estimate individual male reproductive success in this population...

..CERVUS can be used to calculate allele frequencies, run simulations and perform parentage analysis using data from all types of codominant markers...

..The data also suggest that genetic selection for an enhanced anti-T. circumcincta IgA response might complement selection based on a reduced FEC as a strategy to select for resistance to gastrointestinal nematodes...

..vitrinus. The fact that this species had higher numbers in males than females and was associated with over-winter weight loss implies it could have an important role in host mortality in high-density years...

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..More generally, we argue that IGEs likely provide a widespread but poorly recognized source of evolutionary constraint for traits influenced by competition...

..The close genetic relationship of T. melophagium and T. theileri suggests that T. melophagium represents a lineage of T. theileri that adapted to transmission by sheep keds and hence became a specific parasite of sheep...

..Habitat fragment size was not significantly associated with genetic diversity in populations but there was a significant correlation between habitat fragment size and effective population size...

..Additionally, we explored the effect of choosing arbitrary cell cost values to construct least cost-distance matrices and described a method for improving the selection of cell cost values for a particular landscape feature...

..This highlights the importance of resolving the underlying genetic basis of phenotypic variation in explaining evolutionary dynamics...

..The method was also tested for its applicability to high through-put screening of faecal samples...

..Finally, there were significant maternal effects in a range of traits, particularly for females...

..Comparison with other ungulate studies indicates that positive associations between maternal quality and the proportion of male offspring born have only been documented in populations below carrying capacity...

..Given the series of null results in our other tests, it seems likely that this was a direct mechanistic effect rather than because measures of FA were indicative of individual quality or condition...

..Close and moderate inbreeding appear to be a routine part of breeding behaviour in these ruminant populations...

..There was a pattern of male-biased dispersal, the first example in a passerine, and the first time that evidence of a sex-biased pattern of dispersal has been shown for queleas...

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..This is perhaps because the migratory divide does not act to separate individuals into populations within which genetic and plumage differentiation can be maintained...

..We discuss the potential contribution of temporal, spatial, and sexual prezygotic barriers to the observed reproductive isolation as well as postzygotic selection against hybrid zygotes or fry...

..Association mapping may be possible in this population, although a high 'baseline' level of LD could lead to false positive associations between marker loci and a trait of interest...

..This result demonstrates the importance of understanding the genetic basis of fitness variation when making predictions about the microevolutionary consequences of selection...

..However, genetic substructure can lead to allelic associations and generate environmental effects within lineages that have the potential to confound heritability analyses and allelic association studies...

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..The simple method we develop has potential to provide substantial insight into the relative contributions of population and individual-level processes to the dynamics of populations in stochastic environments...

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..To our knowledge this is the first time that a QTL for any trait has been mapped in a wild mammal population. It is hoped that this study will stimulate further investigations of the genetic architecture of fitness traits in the wild...

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..Our results thus provide direct quantitative evidence that male reproductive success in wild populations of mammals is dependent upon the relative magnitude of both overt contest competition and covert sperm competition...

..09. Given this range of results, we suggest that such power and sensitivity analyses could greatly complement empirical studies, and we provide the computer program PEDANTICS to aid in their application...

..0001, LOD=110.20), and very tight linkage between Coat colour and TYRP1 (LOD=29.50)...