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EPISTASIS AND THE EFFECT OF FOUNDER EVENTS ON THE ADDITIVE GENETIC VARIANCE
1Department of Biological Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, P.O. Box 4348, Chicago, IL, 60680.
Summary
Founder events can increase additive genetic variance by converting epistatic genetic variance, especially with low recombination and small propagule size. This challenges traditional views of genetic variation reduction.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary genetics
- Population genetics
Background:
- Traditional models of founder events emphasize reduced genetic variation.
- Recent research suggests founder events can increase genetic variance when epistasis is present.
Purpose of the Study:
- To model the conversion of epistatic genetic variance to additive genetic variance during founder events.
- To investigate the influence of recombination rate and propagule size on this conversion.
Main Methods:
- Developed a theoretical model to simulate founder events.
- Analyzed the conversion of additive-by-additive epistasis to additive genetic variance.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated that founder events convert epistatic variance to additive genetic variance.
- Conversion amount depends on recombination rate and propagule size.
- Up to 75% of epistatic variance can become additive variance in a two-individual founder event.
Conclusions:
- Founder events can increase additive genetic variance, contrary to previous assumptions.
- This mechanism may be crucial for the evolution of fitness traits, which often have substantial nonadditive genetic variance.
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