ИСТИНА

Though basal metabolic rate (BMR) is a most examined energetic trait, which is often considered to be an indicator of competitive ability of an animal, very little is known about its heritability. The heritability value of a trait makes it possible to predict a trait‘s response to selection. Several results from our previous investigations give indirect evidence of significant heritability of BMR in free-living male pied flycatchers: 1) the positive correlation between resting metabolic rate (RMR) of chicks and BMR of their true fathers in cross-fostering experiments; 2) relatively high repeatability of BMR in males and females over considerable time intervals (1-3 years). In this study we use BMR measurements of different relatives (parents and offspring, full sibs and half sibs) in natural population of pied flycatcher in Tomsk (Western Syberia; 56º20´N, 84º56´E) in 2008-2009. We present the first attempt to estimate BMR heritability in free-living populations of endotherms. Consequences of our results for BMR usage in intra-population evolutionary studies will be discussed.