The current decline in amphibian populations worldwide calls
for a greater understanding of the causes behind decreased population
viability. Of particular interest is inbreeding depression, since
an initial decrease in population size as a result of changes
in environmental conditions could lead to reinforcement of the
decline. Furthermore, because of the strong genetic subdivision
of populations, translocations between populations may not be
feasible due to outbreeding depression.
Although much conservation genetics focus on molecular genetics
(e.g., genetic variation estimated from molecular markers),
quantitative genetic studies are important because the response
to selection
is dependent on the amount of additive and non-additive genetic
variation and genetic correlations between traits. Because
quantitative genetic architecture is likely to be both environmental
and population
dependent, our understanding of how populations will evolve
and respond to conservation management (such as introduction
of new
genetic material) therefore requires documentation of patterns
of quantitative genetic architecture under different conditions.
We try to sort out some of these issues, check out this
site for details on the moor frog project.
Some literature on the subject
Olsson, M. & Uller, T. 2002. Developmental stability and
genetic architecture: a comparison within and across thermal
regimes in
tadpoles. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 15(4): 625-633.
Uller, T., Olsson, M. & Ståhlberg, F. 2002. Variation
in heritability of tadpole growth: an experimental analysis.
Heredity 88(6): 480-484.
Olsson, M., Madsen, T., Ujvari, B., Uller, T. & Wapstra,
E. 2004. Haldane rules: costs of outbreeding at production of
daughters
in sand lizards. Ecology Letters 7: 924-928.
Sagvik, J., Uller, T. & Olsson, M. 2005. Outbreeding depression
in the common frog, Rana temporaria. Conservation Genetics,
6: 205-211.
Uller, T., Sagvik, J. & Olsson, M. 2006. Crosses between
frog populations reveal genetic divergence at short geographic
distance.
Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 89: 189-195.
Sagvik, J., Uller, T., Stenlund, T. & Olsson, M. 2007. Intraspecific
variation in fungal infection of frogs eggs. Evolutionary Ecology,
in press.
