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Genetic Coefficient of Variance

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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

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Synonyms

Coefficient of additive genetic variance; Evolvability

Definition

The genetic coefficient of variance, specifically the coefficient of additive genetic variance, is a mean-standardized index of the evolvability of a trait (Hill 2010; Houle 1992). In other words, it reflects the potential for a particular trait to respond to selection pressures on a particular population. The larger the coefficient, the greater the evolvability of the trait.

Introduction

One of the most important concepts in quantitative genetics and the study of evolution is that of evolvability, or a trait’s capacity for adapting to various selection pressures to which a population is subject. Researchers have attempted to quantify this construct in numerous ways, particularly the coefficient of additive genetic variance (CVA) and the narrow-sense heritability estimate (Hansen et al. 2011). This section focuses on the former by discussing how one mathematically obtains the CVA and why it is the preferred...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, V6T1Z4, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Benjamin Y. Cheung

Authors
  1. Benjamin Y. Cheung
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Correspondence to Benjamin Y. Cheung .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Ilan Dar-Nimrod

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Cheung, B.Y. (2017). Genetic Coefficient of Variance. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1474-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1474-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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