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... (Burggren and Reyna 2011). For example, insulin sensitivity can be programmed in utero based on maternal nutrition status (review in Jones and Ozanne 2009). Thus, the entire ontogenetic history of the developing organism becomes critical in determining adult fitness. If we partition ontogeny into di ...
... (Burggren and Reyna 2011). For example, insulin sensitivity can be programmed in utero based on maternal nutrition status (review in Jones and Ozanne 2009). Thus, the entire ontogenetic history of the developing organism becomes critical in determining adult fitness. If we partition ontogeny into di ...
Heritability
Heritability is a statistic used in breeding and genetics works that estimates how much of the genetic diversity of a phenotypic trait in a population is due to genetic differences in that population. Other causes of measured variation in a trait are characterized as environmental factors, including measurement error. In human studies of heritability these are often apportioned into factors from ""shared environment"" and ""non-shared environment"" based on whether they tend to result in persons brought up in the same household more or less similar to persons who were not. Some humans in a population are taller than others; heritability attempts to identify how much genetics play a role in part of the population being taller. Heritability is estimated by comparing individual phenotypic variation among differently related individuals in a population. Heritability is an important concept in quantitative genetics, particularly in selective breeding and behavior genetics (for instance, twin studies), but is less widely used in population genetics.Geoffrey Miller, an evolutionary psychologist, has said, writing about sexual selection and biological fitness, ""The concept of heritability applies only to traits that differ between individuals. If a trait exists in precisely the same form across all individuals, it may be inherited, but it cannot be heritable.""