Vitamin D status is heritable and under environment‐dependent selection in the wild

Abstract

Vitamin D has a well‐established role in skeletal health and is increasingly linked to chronic disease and mortality in humans and companion animals. Despite the clear significance of vitamin D for health and obvious implications for fitness under natural conditions, no longitudinal study has tested whether the circulating concentration of vitamin D is under natural selection in the wild. Here, we show that concentrations of dietary‐derived vitamin D 2 and endogenously produced vitamin D 3 metabolites are heritable and largely polygenic in a wild population of Soay sheep ( Ovis aries ). Vitamin D 2 status was positively associated with female adult survival, and vitamin D 3 status predicted female fecundity in particular, good environment years when sheep density and competition for resources was low. Our study provides evidence that vitamin D status has the potential to respond to selection, and also provides new insights into how vitamin D metabolism is associated with fitness in the wild.

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