Section: Evolutionary Biology
Topic: Ecology, Evolution, Genetics/genomics

Partitioning the phenotypic and genetic variances of reaction norms

de Villemereuil, Pierre1, 2  ; Chevin, Luis-Miguel3 
1 Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB), École Pratique des Hautes Études PSL, MNHN, CNRS, SU, UA, Paris, France
2 Institut Universitaire de France (IUF)
3 CEFE, CNRS, Université de Montpellier, Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France

Corresponding author(s): de Villemereuil, Pierre (pierre.de-villemereuil@mnhn.fr)

10.24072/pcjournal.515 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 5 (2025), article no. e15.

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Many traits show plastic phenotypic variation across environments, captured by their norms of reaction. These reaction norms may be discrete or continuous, and can substantially vary in shape across organisms and traits, making it difficult to compare amounts and types of plasticity among (or even within) studies. In addition, the evolutionary potential of phenotypic traits and their plasticity in heterogeneous environments critically depends on how reaction norms vary genetically, but there is no consensus on how this should be quantified. Here, we propose a partitioning of phenotypic variance across genotypes and environments that jointly address these challenges. We start by distinguishing the components of phenotypic variance arising from the average reaction norm across genotypes, genetic variation in reaction norms (with additive and non-additive components), and a residual that cannot be predicted from the genotype and the environment. We then further partition the genetic variance of the trait (additive or not) into an environment-blind component and a component arising from genetic variance in plasticity. We show that the additive components can be expressed, and further decomposed according to the relative contributions from each parameter, using what we describe as the reaction norm gradient. This allows for a very general framework applicable from the character-state to curve-parameter approaches, including polynomial functions, or arbitrary non-linear models. To facilitate the use of this variance decomposition, we provide the Reacnorm R package, including a practical tutorial. Overall the toolbox we develop should serve as a basis for a unifying and deeper understanding of the variation and genetics of reaction norms and plasticity, as well as more robust comparative studies of plasticity across organisms and traits.

Published online:
DOI: 10.24072/pcjournal.515
Type: Research article
Mots-clés : phenotypic plasticity, quantitative genetics, character-state approach, polynomial approach, non-linear modelling

de Villemereuil, Pierre 1, 2; Chevin, Luis-Miguel 3

1 Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB), École Pratique des Hautes Études PSL, MNHN, CNRS, SU, UA, Paris, France
2 Institut Universitaire de France (IUF)
3 CEFE, CNRS, Université de Montpellier, Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France
License: CC-BY 4.0
Copyrights: The authors retain unrestricted copyrights and publishing rights 
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de Villemereuil, Pierre; Chevin, Luis-Miguel. Partitioning the phenotypic and genetic variances of reaction norms. Peer Community Journal, Volume 5 (2025), article  no. e15. doi : 10.24072/pcjournal.515. https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.515/

PCI peer reviews and recommendation, and links to data, scripts, code and supplementary information: 10.24072/pci.evolbiol.100708

Conflict of interest of the recommender and peer reviewers:
The recommender in charge of the evaluation of the article and the reviewers declared that they have no conflict of interest (as defined in the code of conduct of PCI) with the authors or with the content of the article.

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