Summary
The extent to which it is possible to predict the performance of selections, made on the basis of their performance in one environment, when grown in other environments and the modifications of the designs of selection programmes that are necessary in order to select for either indifference or sensitivity to environmental variation as well as for mean performance, have been investigated using rate of growth of the dikaryotic stage of the heterothallic, basidiomycete Schizophyllum commune as a model system. The material was the eighth generation of 10 selections. Eight of these, two selected for high and two for low rate of growth from each of two wild isolates, consisted of one high and one low selection from each isolate selected on their performance at 20° C. and the other high and low selection from each isolate on their performance at 30° C. The remaining two selections, one high and one low selection from one of the two isolates, were selected on the basis of their performance at both 20° C. and 30° C. These 10 selections and the two original, unselected wild isolates were compared for their rates of growth over nine temperature environments covering the range 15° C. to 35° C. at 2·5° C. intervals. Lines selected from the same isolate in the same direction but on the basis of their performance at different temperatures, showed significant genotype-environmental interactions with the nine temperature environments. These interactions, which were analysed using both dependent and independent assessments of the environments, could be directly related to the temperatures at which they were selected. In general, selections made at the lower temperature deviated more in the direction of selection at lower temperatures than selections made at the higher temperature, while selections made at the higher temperature deviated more in the direction of selection at higher temperatures than selections made at the lower temperature. Selections made on the basis of their performance in two different temperatures maintained their deviations in the direction of selection over extreme temperature environments much better than selections made at a single temperature. Selections for a low rate of growth at a temperature that leads to a relatively high rate of growth gave lines that were less sensitive to temperature changes than for the same selection made at a temperature that leads to a relatively low rate of growth. The reverse was true of selections for high rate of growth. Selections made on the basis of performance at two different temperatures were always intermediate in their sensitivity to temperature changes. Since all these results are predictable from a simple and general model of gene and environmental action and interactions, they presumably have a general validity.
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Jinks, J., Connolly, V. Selection for specific and general response to environmental differences. Heredity 30, 33–40 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1973.4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1973.4
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