EFFECTS OF POPULATION BOTTLENECKS ON GENETIC DIVERSITY AS MEASURED BY ALLOZYME ELECTROPHORESIS

Low levels of allozyme heterozygosity in populations are often attributed to previous population bottlenecks; however, few experiments have examined the relationship between heterozygosity and bottlenecks under natural conditions. The composition and number of founders of 55 experimental populations of the eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki), maintained under simulated field conditions, were manipulated to examine the effects of bottlenecks on three components of allozyme diversity. Correlations between observed and expected values of allozyme heterozygosity, proportions of polymorphic loci, and numbers of alleles per locus were 0.423, 0.602, and 0.772, respectively. The numbers of polymorphic loci and of alleles per locus were more sensitive indicators of differences in genetic diversity between the pre-bottleneck and post-bottleneck populations than was multiple-locus heterozygosity. In many populations, single- and multiple-locus heterozygosity actually increased as a result of the founder event. The weak relationship between a population's heterozygosity and the number and composition of its founders resulted from an increase in the variance of heterozygosity due to drift of allele frequencies. There was little evidence that selection influenced the loss of allozyme variation. When it is not possible to estimate heterozygosity at a large number of polymorphic loci, allozyme surveys attempting to detect founder events and other types of bottlenecks should focus on levels of locus polymorphism and allelic diversity rather than on heterozygosity.