scholarly journals SELECTION ON RECOMBINATION IN A MULTI-LOCUS SYSTEM

Genetics ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 91 (3) ◽  
pp. 575-580
Author(s):  
D Charlesworth ◽  
B Charlesworth

ABSTRACT The model of WILLS and MILLER (1976) for selection on recombination rates in finite populations was studied by means of a computer model involving 80 selected loci and a linked or unlinked modifier gene affecting the map length occupied by the selected loci. The selected loci were subject to heterozygote advantage, and multiplicative fitness interactions between loci were assumed. In all cases studied, selection for reduction in recombination outweighed any selection for increased recombination that may have been present.

Evolution ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Salathé ◽  
Roger D. Kouyos ◽  
Roland R. Regoes ◽  
Sebastian Bonhoeffer

Genetics ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 132 (4) ◽  
pp. 1195-1198 ◽  
Author(s):  
D B Goldstein

Abstract The life cycle of eukaryotic, sexual species is divided into haploid and diploid phases. In multicellular animals and seed plants, the diploid phase is dominant, and the haploid phase is reduced to one, or a very few cells, which are dependent on the diploid form. In other eukaryotic species, however, the haploid phase may dominate or the phases may be equally developed. Even though an alternation between haploid and diploid forms is fundamental to sexual reproduction in eukaryotes, relatively little is known about the evolutionary forces that influence the dominance of haploidy or diploidy. An obvious genetic factor that might result in selection for a dominant diploid phase is heterozygote advantage, since only the diploid phase can be heterozygous. In this paper, I analyze a model designed to determine whether heterozygote advantage could lead to the evolution of a dominant diploid phase. The main result is that heterozygote advantage can lead to an increase in the dominance of the diploid phase, but only if the diploid phase is already sufficiently dominant. Because the diploid phase is unlikely to be increased in organisms that are primarily haploid, I conclude that heterozygote advantage is not a sufficient explanation of the dominance of the diploid phase in higher plants and animals.


2006 ◽  
Vol 243 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Forster ◽  
Christoph Adami ◽  
Claus O. Wilke

Genetics ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 158 (4) ◽  
pp. 1725-1735 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuelle Baudry ◽  
Carole Kerdelhué ◽  
Hideki Innan ◽  
Wolfgang Stephan

Abstract Population genetics theory predicts that strong selection for rare, beneficial mutations or against frequent, deleterious mutations reduces polymorphism at linked neutral (or weakly selected) sites. The reduction of genetic variation is expected to be more severe when recombination rates are lower. In outbreeding species, low recombination rates are usually confined to certain chromosomal regions, such as centromeres and telomeres. In contrast, in predominantly selfing species, the rarity of double heterozygotes leads to a reduced effective recombination rate in the whole genome. We investigated the effects of restricted recombination on DNA polymorphism in these two cases, analyzing five Lycopersicon species with contrasting mating systems: L. chilense, L. hirsutum, L. peruvianum, L. chmielewskii, and L. pimpinellifolium, of which only the first three species have self-incompatibility alleles. In each species, we determined DNA sequence variation of five single-copy genes located in chromosomal regions with either high or low recombination rate. We found that the mating system has a highly significant effect on the level of polymorphism, whereas recombination has only a weak influence. The effect of recombination on levels of polymorphism in Lycopersicon is much weaker than in other well-studied species, including Drosophila. To explain these observations, we discuss a number of hypotheses, invoking selection, recombination, and demographic factors associated with the mating system. We also provide evidence that L. peruvianum, showing a level of polymorphism (almost 3%) that is comparable to the level of divergence in the whole genus, is the ancestral species from which the other species of the genus Lycopersicon have originated relatively recently.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly J. Gilbert ◽  
Fanny Pouyet ◽  
Laurent Excoffier ◽  
Stephan Peischl

SummaryLinked selection is a major driver of genetic diversity. Selection against deleterious mutations removes linked neutral diversity (background selection, BGS, Charlesworth et al. 1993), creating a positive correlation between recombination rates and genetic diversity. Purifying selection against recessive variants, however, can also lead to associative overdominance (AOD, Ohta 1971, Zhao & Charlesworth, 2016), due to an apparent heterozygote advantage at linked neutral loci that opposes the loss of neutral diversity by BGS. Zhao & Charlesworth (2016) identified the conditions when AOD should dominate over BGS in a single-locus model and suggested that the effect of AOD could become stronger if multiple linked deleterious variants co-segregate. We present a model describing how and under which conditions multi-locus dynamics can amplify the effects of AOD. We derive the conditions for a transition from BGS to AOD due to pseudo-overdominance (Ohta & Kimura 1970), i.e. a form of balancing selection that maintains complementary deleterious haplotypes that mask the effect of recessive deleterious mutations. Simulations confirm these findings and show that multi-locus AOD can increase diversity in low recombination regions much more strongly than previously appreciated. While BGS is known to drive genome-wide diversity in humans (Pouyet et al. 2018), the observation of a resurgence of genetic diversity in regions of very low recombination is indicative of AOD. We identify 21 such regions in the human genome showing clear signals of multi-locus AOD. Our results demonstrate that AOD may play an important role in the evolution of low recombination regions of many species.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen R Proulx ◽  
Henrique Teotonio

Gene flow between populations adapting to differing local environmental conditions creates a "migration load" because individuals might disperse to habitats where their survival is low or because they might reproduce with locally maladapted individuals. The amount by which the mean relative population fitness is kept below one creates an opportunity for modifiers of the genetic architecture to spread due to selection. Prior work that separately considered modifiers changing dispersal or recombination rates, or altering dominance or epistasis, has typically focused on the direction of selection rather than its absolute magnitude. We here develop methods to determine the strength of selection on modifiers of the genetic architecture, including modifiers of the dispersal rate, after populations evolved local adaptation. We consider scenarios with up to five loci contributing to local adaptation and derive a matrix model for the deterministic spread of modifiers. We find that selection for modifiers of epistasis and dominance is stronger than selection for decreased recombination, and that selection for partial reductions in recombination are extremely weak, regardless of the number of loci contributing to local adaptation. The spread of modifiers for a reduction in dispersal depends on the number of loci, pre-existing epistasis and extent of migration load. We identify a novel effect, that modifiers of dominance are more strongly selected when they are unlinked to the locus that they modify. Overall, these results help explain population differentiation and reproductive isolation and provide a benchmark to compare selection on genetic architecture modifiers in finite population sizes and under demographic stochasticity.


PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e5110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob A. Tennessen

The fates of genetic polymorphisms maintained by balancing selection depend on evolutionary dynamics at linked sites. While coevolution across linked, epigenetically-interacting loci has been extensively explored, such supergenes may be relatively rare. However, genes harboring adaptive variation can occur in close physical proximity while generating independent effects on fitness. Here, I present a model in which two linked loci without epistasis are both under balancing selection for unrelated reasons. Using forward-time simulations, I show that recombination rate strongly influences the retention of adaptive polymorphism, especially for intermediate selection coefficients. A locus is more likely to retain adaptive variation if it is closely linked to another locus under balancing selection, even if the two loci have no interaction. Thus, two linked polymorphisms can both be retained indefinitely even when they would both be lost to drift if unlinked. While these results may be intuitive, they have important implications for genetic architecture: clusters of mutually reinforcing genes may underlie phenotypic variation in natural populations, and such genes cannot be assumed to be functionally associated. Future studies that measure selection coefficients and recombination rates among closely linked genes will be fruitful for characterizing the extent of this phenomenon.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob A Tennessen

The fates of genetic polymorphisms maintained by balancing selection depend on evolutionary dynamics at linked sites. While coevolution across linked, epigenetically-interacting loci has been extensively explored, such supergenes may be relatively rare. However, genes harboring adaptive variation can occur in close physical proximity while generating independent effects on fitness. Here, I present a model in which two linked loci without epistasis are both under balancing selection for unrelated reasons. Using forward-time simulations, I show that recombination rate strongly influences the retention of adaptive polymorphism, especially for intermediate selection coefficients. A locus is more likely to retain adaptive variation if it is closely linked to another locus under balancing selection, even if the two loci have no interaction. Thus, two linked polymorphisms can both be retained indefinitely even when they would both be lost to drift if unlinked. Such clusters of mutually reinforcing genes may underlie phenotypic variation in natural populations. Future studies that measure selection coefficients and recombination rates among closely linked genes will be fruitful for characterizing the extent of this phenomenon.


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