摘要 : This study explored genetic variation and co-variation in multiple functionalplant traits. Our goal was to characterize selection, heritabilities and geneticcorrelations among different types of traits to gain insight into the evo... 展开 This study explored genetic variation and co-variation in multiple functionalplant traits. Our goal was to characterize selection, heritabilities and geneticcorrelations among different types of traits to gain insight into the evolution-ary ecology of plant populations and their interactions with insect herbivores.In a field experiment, we detected significant heritable variation for each of 24traits of Oenothera biennis and extensive genetic covariance among traits. Traitswith diverse functions formed several distinct groups that exhibited positivegenetic covariation with each other. Genetic variation in life-history traits andsecondary chemistry together explained a large proportion of variation inherbivory (r~2 = 0.73). At the same time, selection acted on lifetime biomass,life-history traits and two secondary compounds of O. biennis, explaining over95% of the variation in relative fitness among genotypes. The combination ofgenetic covariances and directional selection acting on multiple traits suggeststhat adaptive evolution of particular traits is constrained, and that correlatedevolution of groups of traits will occur, which is expected to drive theevolution of increased herbivore susceptibility. As a whole, our study indicatesthat an examination of genetic variation and covariation among manydifferent types of traits can provide greater insight into the evolutionaryecology of plant populations and plant—herbivore interactions. 收起