Robustness increases heritability: implications for familial disease
Abstract
Robustness protects organisms in two ways. Homeostatic buffering lowers the variation of traits caused by internal or external perturbations. Tolerance reduces the consequences of bad situations, such as extreme phenotypes or infections. This article shows that both types of robustness increase the heritability of protected traits. Additionally, robustness strongly increases the heritability of disease. The natural tendency for organisms to protect robustly against perturbations may partly explain the high heritability that occurs for some diseases.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jan 16, 2023
- Source ID
- 10.1093/evolut/qpac026
Entities
People
- Steven Frank
Organizations
- National Science Foundation
- United States Department of Defense
- University of California