subordinate trait

subordinate trait

English

Noun

subordinate trait (plural subordinate traits)

1. A trait, at a lower level of biological organization, that acts together with other such traits to affect or determine characteristics at a higher level of biological organization.
   • August 2006, Enrico L. Rezende et al., Maximal oxygen consumption in relation to subordinate traits in lines of house mice selectively bred for high voluntary wheel running in Journal of Applied Physiology, volume 101:

     Although S lines had higher VO_{2 max} than C, subordinate traits showed no statistical differences when the presence of the mini-muscle phenotype was controlled.

   • October 2009, Christopher E. Oufiero and Theodore Garland Jr., Repeatability and correlation of swimming performances and size over varying time-scales in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata) in Functional Ecology, volume 23:

     A negative relationship may exist between burst speed and endurance because they are affected by many of the same subordinate traits, such as muscle fibre type composition (Webb 1984, Weihs 1989, Garland & Losos 1994, Vanhooydonck et al. 2001, Bonine et al. 2005).

   • March 2014, Marija Mrdaković et al., Adaptive phenotypic plasticity of gypsy moth digestive enzymes in Central European Journal of Biology, volume 9:

     Since complex life-history traits are composed of many subordinate traits, the response to selection, which acts most strongly on those phenotypic aspects that are most strongly correlated with fitness, comprises associated changes in both mean values and plasticity of various aspects of morphology, physiology, and biochemical pathways [4-6].

References

• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16601309
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenotypic_plasticity
• http://www.wilderdom.com/personality/traits/PersonalityTraitsBig5.html
• http://jeb.biologists.org/content/209/12/2344.figures-only