Evolutionary Quantitative Genetics of Genomic Imprinting

AbstractGenomic imprinting creates a difference in how maternal and paternal gene copies contribute to quantitative genetic variation and evolutionary change. To fully understand these impacts, O’Brien and Wolf develop a definitive extension to the classic....Genomic imprinting shapes the genotype–phenotype relationship by creating an asymmetry between the influences of paternally and maternally inherited gene copies. Consequently, imprinting can impact heritable and nonheritable variation, resemblance of relatives, and evolutionary dynamics. Although previous analyses have identified some of the quantitative genetic consequences of imprinting, we lack a framework that cleanly separates the influence of imprinting from other components of variation, particularly dominance. Here we apply a simple orthogonal genetic model to evaluate the roles of genetic (additive and dominance) and epigenetic (imprinting) effects. Imprinting increases the resemblance of relatives who share the expressed allele, and therefore increases variance among families of full or half-siblings. However, only part of this increased variance is heritable and contributes to selection responses. When selection is