Quantitative genetics of lifetime growth curves in a lizard

Abstract

Body size is an iconic trait in quantitative genetics. For species with indeterminate growth however, growth curve, a function-valued trait, is the actual trait of interest and requires a specialised framework to study its quantitative genetics. Here, we use such a framework in the common lizard (Zootoca vivipara), using two large datasets (wild and mesocosm populations) with pedigrees, decomposing the total heritability in growth dynamics into two components: the heritability of "intrinsic size" (being small or large across ages) and the heritability of the shape of growth curve. We found slower growth and larger asymptotic sizes in the wild population. We show very low to moderate heritabilities in the parameters of growth curves, varying across populations and sexes. We show a small to moderate heritability in the growth curves, with a stronger importance of the heritability in the shape of growth curves than on average intrinsic sizes. Genetic variation in growth curves differed between the two populations and sexes. Our results highlight the importance of discussing the full dynamics of growth by showing that there is more adaptive potential in the earlier ages for males and in the later ages for females, with differences between the studied populations.