Data and code from: Lifetime fitness and annual survival are heritable and highly genetically correlated in a wild primate population

The additive genetic variance (VA) of fitness quantifies the expected
response to selection; lifetime breeding success (LBS) is an effective
metric of fitness in animal populations. However, data on LBS are
relatively rare for wild populations of long-lived species, while
time-limited metrics such as annual survival or fertility are more readily
available. The magnitude of VA for these time-limited metrics, and the
degree to which they are genetically correlated with LBS, remains unclear
in most cases. Here we estimated the VA and heritability (h2) of LBS and
four time-limited fitness metrics in wild female baboons in Kenya. The
most highly heritable metrics were LBS (h2=0.25) and annual survival
(h2=0.23). Notably, all the VA for LBS was attributable to survival to
first successful reproduction. Furthermore, all fitness metrics examined
were highly genetically correlated with each other, supporting the
potential use of time-limited metrics where LBS data are limited. Our
analyses predicted faster phenotypic evolution than we observed, raising
the possibility that environmental effects have masked responses to
selection (“cryptic evolution”) or that social effects inflate estimated
VA. Together, our findings reveal a substantial genetic contribution to
variation in survival, and in turn, to fitness and contemporary evolution
in a long-lived animal.

适应性的加性遗传方差（additive genetic variance, VA）可量化选择的预期响应；终身繁殖成功率（lifetime breeding success, LBS）是动物种群适应性的有效衡量指标。然而，对于长寿物种的野生种群而言，LBS相关数据相对稀缺，而诸如年存活率或繁殖力等受时间限制的指标则更易获取。目前在多数情况下，这类受时间限制的指标的VA大小，以及它们与LBS的遗传相关程度，仍不明确。本研究针对肯尼亚野生雌性狒狒，估算了LBS与4项受时间限制的适应性指标的VA及遗传力（heritability, h²）。其中遗传力最高的指标为LBS（h²=0.25）与年存活率（h²=0.23）。值得注意的是，LBS的全部VA均可归因于首次成功繁殖前的存活率。此外，本研究考察的所有适应性指标之间均存在高度遗传相关，这支持在LBS数据受限的情况下，可使用受时间限制的指标作为替代。我们的分析预测的表型进化速度快于实际观测结果，这提示存在两种可能性：一是环境效应掩盖了选择响应（即“隐秘进化（cryptic evolution）”），二是社会效应高估了估算的VA。综上，本研究结果揭示了存活率变异存在显著的遗传贡献，进而对长寿动物的适应性及当代进化产生影响。