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Adaptive evolution and effective population size in wild house mice.

Megan Phifer-Rixey1, François Bonhomme, Pierre Boursot

  • 1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, USA. mrixey@email.arizona.edu

Molecular Biology and Evolution
|April 12, 2012
PubMed
Summary

The proportion of beneficial mutations fixed by selection (α) varies with effective population size (N(e)). Larger N(e) in Mus musculus castaneus correlated with higher adaptive fixations and stronger purifying selection, supporting N(e)

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Population genetics
  • Molecular evolution

Background:

  • The proportion of amino acid substitutions fixed by selection (α) varies greatly across species.
  • Differences in effective population size (N(e)) are hypothesized to influence selection efficacy.
  • Previous comparisons involved distantly related taxa with confounding biological differences.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To estimate α in three closely related house mouse lineages (Mus musculus) with differing N(e) but similar ecology.
  • To test the hypothesis that N(e) impacts the efficacy of both positive and purifying selection.

Main Methods:

  • Genotyping of Mus musculus musculus, M. m. domesticus, and M. m. castaneus using a high-density SNP array.
  • Comparing within-subspecies mutation proportions to those fixed between subspecies and an outgroup (Mus spretus).
  • Estimating the proportion of adaptive amino acid substitutions (α) for each lineage.

Main Results:

  • Mus musculus castaneus, with the largest N(e), showed significant evidence of positive selection (α ≈ 40%).
  • M. m. domesticus (α = 13%) and M. m. musculus (α = 12%) had substantially lower estimates of α.
  • Higher α in M. m. castaneus was linked to both increased adaptive fixations and more effective purifying selection.

Conclusions:

  • Effective population size (N(e)) significantly influences the efficacy of selection in house mice.
  • Differences in N(e) can explain variation in the proportion of adaptive and deleterious mutations fixed among closely related lineages.
  • This study provides empirical support for the role of N(e) in shaping evolutionary trajectories.