Inconsistent inbreeding effects during lizard ontogeny

• Reported effects of inbreeding vary among taxa and may depend on a number of factors, including what trait is measured, temporal variability, parental effects, or life history stage. To understand the effects of inbreeding during early life history stages, we estimated the effects of individual-level heterozygosity on hatching success and first year survival in a Swedish population of sand lizards (Lacerta agilis) over a period of almost a decade, using over 4000 eggs, 400 clutches, and over 3000 juveniles. Heterozygosity had a positive effect on hatching success, in standardized laboratory conditions, but no effect on first year survival. Also, both of these measures of viability varied across the years of the study, demonstrating the importance of temporal heterogeneity in pre and post-hatching conditions. Finally, we identified both paternal and maternal identity effects on hatching success. Thus, we show that selection on heterozygosity was not consistent across developmental life stages, emphasizing the need of considering a number of ontogenic stages, as well as potential parental and environmental effects, when studying the effects of heterozygosity on viability in natural populations.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Heterozygosity

Hatching success

First year survival

Life history stages

major histocompatibility complex

sand lizard

genetic diversity

lacerta-agilis

multilocus heterozygosity

parental relatedness

natural-population

wild population

depression

selection

Biodiversity & Conservation

Genetics & Heredity

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)