scholarly journals Inbreeding depression and the maintenance of deleterious genes by mutation: model of a Drosophila chromosome

1989 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Sved ◽  
Alan N. Wilton

SummaryInbreeding experiments in Drosophila, particularly those carried out using the ‘balancer equilibration’ technique, have revealed high levels of inbreeding depression. It has been estimated that non-lethal chromosomes have a fitness of 20% or less in homozygous condition compared to chromosome heterozygotes. Deleterious recessive genes are, in principle, capable of explaining such inbreeding depression. In this paper we have asked quantitatively whether the observed high levels are consistent with what is known about numbers of loci and mutation rates. We find that accepted mutation rates are easily high enough, provided that the deleterious genes are fully recessive. Partial dominance, even to the extent of 10% or less, reverses this conclusion. These calculations have been made assuming the multiplicative model. However the arguments are potentially sensitive to certain types of selective interactions, and a model which proposes quadratic gene interaction allows for higher levels of partial dominance. We also test the effect of taking into account a further constraint. Crow and Mukai have argued from estimates of the persistence of new deleterious mutations affecting viability that heterozygotes have a reduction in fitness of around 1–2% per locus, similar to the estimate for lethal genes. Application of this additional constraint would markedly reduce the range of permissible selection coefficients. However we argue that the selective disadvantages in heterozygotes of most mutations affecting fitness are unlikely to be as high as estimated for mutations affecting viability.

Genome ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 1005-1010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong-Bi Fu ◽  
Kermit Ritland

Eight unlinked isozyme loci were used as genetic markers to characterize fecundity genes contributing to inbreeding depression in two selfed progeny arrays of Mimulus guttatus. Five fecundity traits were measured. Six of eight marked chromosomal segments were significantly associated with the expression of these traits. The number of genes detected for five traits in two progeny arrays varied, with an average of 2.8 genes per trait. Individual segments explained 1.44–9.29%, and together accounted for 3.85–11.32%, of phenotypic variation. Of 20 significant associations, 10 could be interpreted as exhibiting partial dominance, 7 overdominance, 3 partial recessivity, and 0 underdominance. Significant pairwise epistasis was rare. The results of this study suggest that inbreeding depression is caused by many deleterious genes of relatively small, partially dominant effects.Key words: linkage, isozymes, QTLs, inbreeding depression, Mimulus guttatus.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Lesaffre

ABSTRACTInbreeding depression, that is the decrease in fitness of inbred relative to outbred individuals, was shown to increase strongly as life expectancy increases in plants. Because plants are thought to not have a separated germline, it was proposed that this pattern could be generated by somatic mutations accumulating during growth, since larger and more long-lived species have more opportunities for mutations to accumulate. A key determinant of the role of somatic mutations is the rate at which they occur, which likely differs between species because mutation rates may evolve differently in species with constrasting life-histories. In this paper, we study the evolution of the mutation rates in plants, and consider the population-level consequences of inheritable somatic mutations given this evolution. We show that despite substantially lower per year mutation rates, more long-lived species still tend to accumulate larger amounts of deleterious mutations because of higher per generation, leading to higher levels of inbreeding depression in these species. However, the magnitude of this increase depends strongly on how mutagenic meiosis is relative to growth.


Genetics ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 99 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-335
Author(s):  
Montgomery Slatkin

ABSTRACT The results from a simulation model of selection, mutation and genetic drift in a geographically subdivided population are presented. The infinite-alleles mutation model of Kimura and Crow (1964) is asumed, and both advantageous and deleterious mutations are considered. It is shown that the average frequency of an allele conditioned on the number of local populations it appears in—the conditional average frequency—is approximately independent of both the selection intensity and mutation rates assumed, but depends strongly on the overall level of gene flow. This result justifies the use of the conditional average frequency to obtain a rough estimate of the level of gene flow in a subdivided population. Data from 16 species are presented and discussed. There are large differences in the conditional average frequencies of different species, although there is some consistency within taxa. Some species apparently have high levels of gene flow and others, particularly salamanders, have low levels. Alternative explanations for the patterns found in the data are considered.


2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-41
Author(s):  
K. M. Iftekharuddaula ◽  
M. A. Newaz ◽  
P. S. Biswas ◽  
M. K. Bashar

Hayman’s analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated importance of both additive and non-additive genetic components for all the grain characters. The ANOVA showed unidirectional dominance for the characters viz. kernel breadth, upper empty glume length and endosperm-embryo ratio, asymmetrical gene distribution for the characters viz. grain length, grain breadth, kernel length, kernel breadth and kernel thickness and residual dominance effects for all the grain characters studied. Five out of nine grain characters viz. grain breadth, grain thickness, kernel breadth, kernel thickness and upper empty glume length followed the simple additive-dominance genetic model. The rest of the grain characters showed nonallelic gene interaction or epistasis. According to Vr-Wr graph, partial dominance was involved in the action of genes governing the inheritance of grain breadth, grain thickness, kernel breadth and kernel thickness while complete dominance was involved in the inheritance of upper empty glume length. BR4828-54-4-1-4-9 contained the most of the recessive genes for four characters except upper empty glume length while Amol3 appeared to possess most of the recessive genes. On the other hand, Minikit for grain breadth, Amol3 for grain thickness and BRRI dhan29 for kernel breadth, kernel thickness and upper empty glume length possessed most of the dominant genes for the respective characters. The components of variance demonstrated involvement of both additive and dominant components in the inheritance of grain breadth, grain thickness, kernel breadth, kernel thickness and endosperm-embryo ratio. The distribution of dominant and recessive genes was unequal in the parents for grain breadth, kernel breadth, grain thickness, kernel thickness and upper empty glume length. Again, net dominance effects were in the negative direction for all the grain characters. There was drastic influence of environment on all the five grain characters following simple additive-dominance genetic model. Heritability in narrow sense (h2 n) was very high for grain breadth, grain thickness, kernel breadth and kernel thickness. However, h2 n for upper empty glume length was moderate. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjpbg.v21i1.17047


2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1958) ◽  
pp. 20211127
Author(s):  
Thomas Lesaffre

Inbreeding depression, that is the decrease in fitness of inbred relative to outbred individuals, was shown to increase strongly as life expectancy increases in plants. Because plants are thought to not have a separated germline, it was proposed that this pattern could be generated by somatic mutations accumulating during growth, since larger and more long-lived species have more opportunities for mutations to accumulate. A key determinant of the role of somatic mutations is the rate at which they occur, which probably differs between species because mutation rates may evolve differently in species with constrasting life histories. In this paper, I study the evolution of the mutation rates in plants, and consider the population-level consequences of inheritable somatic mutations given this evolution. I show that despite substantially lower somatic and meiotic mutation rates, more long-lived species still tend to accumulate larger amounts of deleterious mutations because of the increased number of opportunities they have to acquire mutations during growth, leading to higher levels of inbreeding depression in these species. However, the magnitude of this increase depends strongly on how mutagenic meiosis is relative to growth, to the point of being close to non-existent in some situations.


Genetics ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 155 (4) ◽  
pp. 1991-2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
A García-Dorado ◽  
A Caballero

Abstract T. Mukai and co-workers in the late 1960s and O. Ohnishi in the 1970s carried out a series of experiments to obtain direct estimates of the average coefficient of dominance (h¯) of minor viability mutations in Drosophila melanogaster. The results of these experiments, although inconsistent, have been interpreted as indicating slight recessivity of deleterious mutations, with h¯≈0.4. Mukai obtained conflicting results depending on the type of heterozygotes used, some estimates suggesting overdominance and others partial dominance. Ohnishi's estimates, based on the ratio of heterozygous to homozygous viability declines, were more consistent, pointing to the above value. However, we have reanalyzed Ohnishi's data, estimating h¯ by the regression method, and obtained a much smaller estimate of ~0.1. This significant difference can be due partly to the different weighting implicit in the estimates, but we suggest that this is not the only explanation. We propose as a plausible hypothesis that a putative nonmutational decline in viability occurring in the first half of Ohnishi's experiment (affecting both homozygotes and heterozygotes) has biased upward the estimates from the ratio, while it would not bias the regression estimates. This hypothesis also explains the very high h¯≈0.7 observed in Ohnishi's high-viability chromosomes. By constructing a model of spontaneous mutations using parameters in the literature, we investigate the above possibility. The results indicate that a model of few mutations with moderately large effects and h¯≈0.2 is able to explain the observed estimates and the distributions of homozygous and heterozygous viabilities. Accounting for an expression of mutations in genotypes with the balancer chromosome Cy does not alter the conclusions qualitatively.


1999 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. RONFORT

Single-locus equilibrium frequencies of a partially recessive deleterious mutation under the mutation–selection balance model are derived for partially selfing autotetraploid populations. Assuming multiplicative fitness interactions among loci, approximate solutions for the mean fitness and inbreeding depression values are also derived for the multiple locus case and compared with expectations for the diploid model. As in diploids, purging of deleterious mutations through consanguineous matings occurs in autotetraploid populations, i.e. the equilibrium mutation load is a decreasing function of the selfing rate. However, the variation of inbreeding depression with the selfing rate depends strongly on the dominance coefficients associated with the three heterozygous genotypes. Inbreeding depression can either increase or decrease with the selfing rate, and does not always vary monotonically. Expected issues for the evolution of the selfing rate consequently differ depending on the dominance coefficients. In some cases, expectations for the evolution of the selfing rate resemble expectations in diploids; but particular sets of dominance coefficients can be found that lead to either complete selfing or intermediate selfing rates as unique evolutionary stable state.


Genetics ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 136 (1) ◽  
pp. 323-331
Author(s):  
Y B Fu ◽  
K Ritland

Abstract The relative importance of different modes of gene expression of viability genes contributing to inbreeding depression was investigated in the wild plant, Mimulus guttatus. Viability genes were identified by self-fertilizing 31 outbred plants, each heterozygous for three to nine unlinked allozyme markers, and analyzing segregation ratios of selfed progeny at maturity for deviations from 1:2:1 ratios. In this study, 24 linkages of viability genes to marker loci were detected. To infer the nature of gene action for these viability genes, a "model-free" graphical method was developed that examines the "space" of segregation ratios allowed by each of seven selection models (i.e., overdominance, complete recessivity, partial recessivity, additivity, partial dominance, complete dominance and underdominance). Using this method, we found that, of 24 linkages detected, 18 were consistent with either partial dominance, complete dominance or underdominance. Six were consistent with either partial recessivity, complete recessivity or overdominance. This finding indicates that, in these chromosomal segments identified by allozyme markers, partial dominance plays the predominant role in inbreeding depression. This is inconsistent with either the dominance or overdominance hypotheses proposed to account for inbreeding depression.


2005 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
SYLVAIN GLÉMIN

The fate of lethal alleles in populations is of interest in evolutionary and conservation biology for several reasons. For instance, lethals may contribute substantially to inbreeding depression. The frequency of lethal alleles depends on population size, but it is not clear how it is affected by population structure. By analysing the case of the infinite island model by numerical approaches and analytical approximations it is shown that, like population size, population structure affects the fate of lethal alleles if dominance levels are low. Inbreeding depression caused by such alleles is also affected by the population structure, whereas the mutation load is only weakly affected. Heterosis also depends on population structure, but it always remains low, of the order of the mutation rate or less. These patterns are compared with those caused by mildly deleterious mutations to give a general picture of the effect of population structure on inbreeding depression, heterosis, and the mutation load.


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