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07:54
Manipulation of Ploidy in Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: March 15, 2018
Diploidy, population structure, and the evolution of recombination
1Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7144, Adaptation et Diversité en Milieu Marin, Roscoff, France. roze@sb-roscoff.fr.
The American Naturalist
|May 30, 2009
Summary
Recombination
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary genetics
- Population genetics
- Theoretical biology
Background:
- Sex influences genetic variation via segregation and recombination.
- Previous models often focused on haploid organisms and lacked diploid considerations.
- Understanding recombination in structured diploid populations is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the evolution of recombination in structured diploid populations.
- To incorporate dominance and epistasis into a three-locus model.
- To analyze the interplay between population structure, selection, drift, and recombination.
Main Methods:
- Developed a three-locus theoretical model for recombination evolution.
- Included parameters for dominance and epistasis among alleles.
- Validated model predictions using multilocus simulations of deleterious mutations.
Main Results:
- Dominance creates a selective pressure against recombination by reducing homozygosity correlations in structured populations.
- Recessive deleterious mutations can drive populations towards zero recombination.
- Epistasis can favor recombination, particularly under negative dominance by dominance epistasis (e(d x d)).
- Additive by additive epistasis (e(a x a)) favors recombination when negative and weak, with effects modulated by mutation rate (U).
Conclusions:
- Dominance and epistasis significantly shape the evolution of recombination in diploids.
- Population structure, combined with dominance, can suppress recombination.
- Epistatic interactions can create conditions where recombination is advantageous, but these effects can be complex and mutation-rate dependent.
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