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Perspectives from plant breeding on Tal’s argument about the weight of genetic versus environmental causes for individuals

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Notes

  1. Omission of the indices suggests misleadingly that the terms of the models refer to some measurable variables (or properties of the genotypes and environments) that exist independently of the specific set of genotypes and environments from which the genotypic values etc. are estimated.

  2. Arguments that “genotype-environment interaction” might be negligible or hard to detect in humans generally use the term in a sense in which “genotype” denotes a value of a measured genetic factor and/or “environment” denotes a value of a measured environmental factor (e.g., Plomin et al. 1977, Moffitt et al. 2005). Genotype-environment interaction in the sense used by plant breeders involves no measurable factors.

  3. Methods of indirect translation requires replication and control of conditions possible only in agricultural and laboratory trials (Taylor 2009).

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Acknowledgments

This letter is based on research supported by the National Science Foundation under grant SES–0634744. A visiting fellowship at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research provided conditions conducive to drafting of the letter. Comments from a reviewer led to elaboration of certain points.

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  1. Programs in Science, Technology & Values and Critical & Creative Thinking, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA, 02125, USA

    Peter Taylor

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Correspondence to Peter Taylor.

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Taylor, P. Perspectives from plant breeding on Tal’s argument about the weight of genetic versus environmental causes for individuals. Biol Philos 24, 735–738 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-009-9162-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-009-9162-1

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