scholarly journals Digest: How mutational bias could explain the maintenance of sex*

Evolution ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (9) ◽  
pp. 1970-1971
Author(s):  
Josselin Clo
Keyword(s):  
Mutational Bias ◽  
Maintenance Of Sex

scholarly journals Dynamics of Microsatellite Divergence Under Stepwise Mutation and Proportional Slippage/Point Mutation Models

Genetics ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 159 (2) ◽  
pp. 839-852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter P Calabrese ◽  
Richard T Durrett ◽  
Charles F Aquadro
Keyword(s):  
Point Mutations ◽  
Genetic Distances ◽  
Mutational Bias ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Mutation Model ◽  
Perfect Repeat ◽  
Stepwise Mutation ◽  
Equilibrium Distributions ◽  
Theoretical Results ◽  
Polymerase Slippage

Abstract Recently Kruglyak, Durrett, Schug, and Aquadro showed that microsatellite equilibrium distributions can result from a balance between polymerase slippage and point mutations. Here, we introduce an elaboration of their model that keeps track of all parts of a perfect repeat and a simplification that ignores point mutations. We develop a detailed mathematical theory for these models that exhibits properties of microsatellite distributions, such as positive skewness of allele lengths, that are consistent with data but are inconsistent with the predictions of the stepwise mutation model. We use our theoretical results to analyze the successes and failures of the genetic distances (δμ)2 and DSW when used to date four divergences: African vs. non-African human populations, humans vs. chimpanzees, Drosophila melanogaster vs. D. simulans, and sheep vs. cattle. The influence of point mutations explains some of the problems with the last two examples, as does the fact that these genetic distances have large stochastic variance. However, we find that these two features are not enough to explain the problems of dating the human-chimpanzee split. One possible explanation of this phenomenon is that long microsatellites have a mutational bias that favors contractions over expansions.

On the Maintenance of Sex Chromosome Polymorphism by Sex-Antagonistic Selection

2011 ◽  
Vol 178 (4) ◽  
pp. 515-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Blaser ◽  
Samuel Neuenschwander ◽  
Nicolas Perrin
Keyword(s):  
Sex Chromosome ◽  
Chromosome Polymorphism ◽  
Antagonistic Selection ◽  
Maintenance Of Sex

scholarly journals Intron evolution inNeurospora: the role of mutational bias and selection

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Sun ◽  
Carrie A. Whittle ◽  
Pádraic Corcoran ◽  
Hanna Johannesson
Keyword(s):  
Mutational Bias ◽  
Intron Evolution

scholarly journals When does parasitism maintain sex in the absence of Red Queen Dynamics?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Ashby
Keyword(s):  
Population Density ◽  
Sexual Reproduction ◽  
Evolutionary Model ◽  
Niche Overlap ◽  
Disease Prevalence ◽  
Heterozygote Advantage ◽  
Red Queen ◽  
Fluctuating Selection ◽  
Antagonistic Coevolution ◽  
Maintenance Of Sex

AbstractParasites can select for sexual reproduction in host populations, preventing replacement by faster growing asexual lineages. This is usually attributed to so-called “Red Queen Dynamics” (RQD), where antagonistic coevolution causes fluctuating selection in allele frequencies, which provides sex with an advantage over asex. However, parasitism may also maintain sex in the absence of RQD when sexual populations are more genetically diverse – and hence more resistant, on average – than clonal populations, allowing sex and asex to stably coexist. While the maintenance of sex due to RQD has been studied extensively, the conditions that allow sex and asex to stably coexist have yet to be explored in detail. In particular, we lack an understanding of how host demography and parasite epidemiology affect the maintenance of sex in the absence of RQD. Here, I use an eco-evolutionary model to show that both population density and the type and strength of virulence are important for maintaining sex, which can be understood in terms of their effects on disease prevalence and severity. In addition, I show that even in the absence of heterozygote advantage, asexual heterozygosity affects coexistence with sex due to variation in niche overlap. These results reveal which host and parasite characteristics are most important for the maintenance of sex in the absence of RQD, and provide empirically testable predictions for how demography and epidemiology mediate competition between sex and asex.

scholarly journals The distribution of epistasis on simple fitness landscapes

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christelle Fraïsse ◽  
John J. Welch
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Fitness Landscape ◽  
Null Model ◽  
Large Data ◽  
Fitness Landscapes ◽  
Mutational Bias ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Epistatic Interactions ◽  
Standing Variation ◽  
Mean And Variance

AbstractFitness interactions between mutations can influence a population’s evolution in many different ways. While epistatic effects are difficult to measure precisely, important information about the overall distribution is captured by the mean and variance of log fitnesses for individuals carrying different numbers of mutations. We derive predictions for these quantities from simple fitness landscapes, based on models of optimizing selection on quantitative traits. We also explore extensions to the models, including modular pleiotropy, variable effects sizes, mutational bias, and maladaptation of the wild-type. We illustrate our approach by reanalysing a large data set of mutant effects in a yeast snoRNA. Though characterized by some strong epistatic interactions, these data give a good overall fit to the non-epistatic null model, suggesting that epistasis might have little effect on the evolutionary dynamics in this system. We also show how the amount of epistasis depends on both the underlying fitness landscape, and the distribution of mutations, and so it is expected to vary in consistent ways between new mutations, standing variation, and fixed mutations.

scholarly journals Quantifying the prevalence of assortative mating in a human population

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Jaffe
Keyword(s):  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Genetic Relatedness ◽  
Random Mating ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Genetic Composition ◽  
Genetic Studies ◽  
Maintenance Of Sex ◽  
Animal Populations ◽  
The Uk ◽  
First Time

AbstractFor the first time, empirical evidence allowed to construct the frequency distribution of a genetic relatedness index between the parents of about half a million individuals living in the UK. The results suggest that over 30% of the population is the product of parents mating assortatively. The rest is probably the offspring of parents matching the genetic composition of their partners randomly. High degrees of genetic relatedness between parents, i.e. extreme inbreeding, was rare. This result shows that assortative mating is likely to be highly prevalent in human populations. Thus, assuming only random mating among humans, as widely done in ecology and population genetic studies, is not an appropriate approximation to reality. The existence of assortative mating has to be accounted for. The results suggest the conclusion that both, assortative and random mating, are evolutionary stable strategies. This improved insight allows to better understand complex evolutionary phenomena, such as the emergence and maintenance of sex, the speed of adaptation, runaway adaptation, maintenance of cooperation, and many others in human and animal populations.

Integrating genomics and multivariate evolutionary quantitative genetics: a case study of constraints on sexual selection in Drosophila serrata

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1960) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam J. Reddiex ◽  
Stephen F. Chenoweth
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Quantitative Genetics ◽  
Genome Wide Association Study ◽  
Mutational Bias ◽  
Stabilizing Selection ◽  
Genetic Constraints ◽  
Selection Gradients ◽  
Selection Responses ◽  
Drosophila Serrata ◽  
Potential Factors

In evolutionary quantitative genetics, the genetic variance–covariance matrix, G , and the vector of directional selection gradients, β , are key parameters for predicting multivariate selection responses and genetic constraints. Historically, investigations of G and β have not overlapped with those dissecting the genetic basis of quantitative traits. Thus, it remains unknown whether these parameters reflect pleiotropic effects at individual loci. Here, we integrate multivariate genome-wide association study (GWAS) with G and β estimation in a well-studied system of multivariate constraint: sexual selection on male cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) in Drosophila serrata . In a panel of wild-derived re-sequenced lines, we augment genome-based restricted maximum likelihood to estimate G alongside multivariate single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) effects, detecting 532 significant associations from 1 652 276 SNPs. Constraint was evident, with β lying in a direction of G with low evolvability. Interestingly, minor frequency alleles typically increased male CHC-attractiveness suggesting opposing natural selection on β . SNP effects were significantly misaligned with the major eigenvector of G , g max , but well aligned to the second and third eigenvectors g 2 and g 3 . We discuss potential factors leading to these varied results including multivariate stabilizing selection and mutational bias. Our framework may be useful as researchers increasingly access genomic methods to study multivariate selection responses in wild populations.

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