Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 28, 2026

Author Spotlight: Exploring Bradysia coprophila's Unique Biology – A Guide to Laboratory Maintenance
Published on: April 19, 2024
Clines with partial panmixia in an environmental pocket
Thomas Nagylaki1, Linlin Su2, Ian Alevy3
1Department of Ecology and Evolution, The University of Chicago, 1101 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
Abstract:
In geographically structured populations, global panmixia can be regarded as the limiting case of long-distance migration. The effect of incorporating partial panmixia into diallelic single-locus clines (i.e., asymptotically stable equilibria) maintained by migration and selection in an isotropic environmental pocket in n dimensions is investigated. The population density is uniform. Migration and selection are both weak; the former is homogeneous and isotropic; the latter is directional. If the scaled panmictic rate β≥1, then the allele favored in the pocket is ultimately lost. For β<1, a cline is maintained if and only if the scaled radius a of the pocket exceeds a critical value an. For a step-environment without dominance, simple, explicit formulas are derived for a1 and a3; an equation with a unique solution and simple, explicit approximations are deduced for a2. The ratio of the selection coefficients outside and inside the pocket is -α. As expected intuitively, the cline becomes more difficult to maintain; i.e., the critical radius an increases for n=1,2,3,… as α, β, or n increases.
Related Concept Videos
Hybrid Zones
Position-effect Variegation
Monohybrid Crosses
Incomplete Dominance
Background and Environment Affect Phenotype
An example of how genetic background affects phenotype can be seen in horses. The Extension gene in horses is responsible for their coat color. A wild-type gene (EE) produces black pigment in the coat, while a mutant gene (ee) produces red pigment. A...
Complementation Tests
Organisms heterozygous for different mutations are crossed pairwise in all combinations. If present on different genes, the mutations can complement each other by providing the missing...

