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. 2018 Aug 17;7:e36273. doi: 10.7554/eLife.36273

Figure 1. Link between genotype, phenotype and interaction space.

Figure 1.

This schematic shows species in a community of grain-eating and nectar-feeding birds, living in an environment where nectar feeding is advantageous. (a) Six different genotypes (sequences Si) on a distance tree genotype space. (b) Four distinct phenotypes, Pj, are present in this space. Genotypes S1 and S2 are mapped to the same phenotype PI, and S5 and S6 are mapped to the same phenotype PIV. (c) Interaction space distinguishes only three interaction traits Tk (for definition see Model section below). PI and PII are mapped to the same interaction trait Tα because the change of feather color does not affect ecological interactions regarding the feeding habit. The table on the right shows how the complexity of the description reduces as we map the system to interaction space.