Maternal effects, either environmental or genetic in origin, are an underappreciated source of phenotypic variance in natural populations. Maternal genetic effects have the potential to constrain or enhance the evolution of offspring traits depending on their magnitude and their genetic correlation with direct genetic effects. We estimated the maternal effect variance and its genetic component for 12 traits expressed over the life history in a pedigreed population of wild red deer (morphology, survival/longevity, breeding success). We only found support for maternal genetic effect variance in the two neonatal morphological traits: birth weight ( hMg2 = 0.31) and birth leg length ( hMg2 = 0.17). For these two traits, the genetic correlation between maternal and direct additive effects was not significantly different from zero, indicating no constraint to evolution from genetic architecture. In contrast, variance in maternal genetic effects enhanced the additive genetic variance available to respond to natural selection. Maternal effect variance was negligible for late‐life traits. We found no evidence for sex differences in either the direct or maternal genetic architecture of offspring traits. Our results suggest that maternal genetic effect variance declines over the lifetime, but also that this additional heritable genetic variation may facilitate evolutionary responses of early‐life traits.

中文翻译：

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马鹿个体发育中母体效应的遗传结构

母体效应，无论是源自环境还是遗传，都是自然种群表型变异的一个被低估的来源。母体遗传效应有可能限制或增强后代性状的进化，这取决于它们的大小以及它们与直接遗传效应的遗传相关性。我们估计了野生马鹿纯种种群（形态学、存活/长寿、繁殖成功）在整个生活史中表达的 12 个性状的母体效应方差及其遗传成分。我们仅在两个新生儿形态特征中发现了对母体遗传效应差异的支持：出生体重 (hMg2 = 0.31) 和出生腿长 (hMg2 = 0.17)。对于这两个性状，母系和直接加成效应之间的遗传相关性与零没有显着差异，表明遗传结构对进化没有限制。相比之下，母体遗传效应的变异增强了可用于响应自然选择的附加遗传变异。对于晚年性状，母体效应方差可以忽略不计。我们没有发现后代特征的直接或母系遗传结构存在性别差异的证据。我们的研究结果表明，母体遗传效应方差在一生中会下降，而且这种额外的可遗传遗传变异可能会促进早期生命特征的进化反应。我们没有发现后代特征的直接或母系遗传结构存在性别差异的证据。我们的研究结果表明，母体遗传效应方差在一生中会下降，而且这种额外的可遗传遗传变异可能会促进早期生命特征的进化反应。我们没有发现后代特征的直接或母系遗传结构存在性别差异的证据。我们的研究结果表明，母体遗传效应方差在一生中会下降，而且这种额外的遗传遗传变异可能会促进早期生命特征的进化反应。