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Transgenic Rodent Assay for Quantifying Male Germ Cell Mutant Frequency

Transgenic Rodent Assay for Quantifying Male Germ Cell Mutant Frequency

Published on: August 6, 2014

MUTATIONAL MELTDOWNS IN SEXUAL POPULATIONS.

Michael Lynch¹, John Conery², Reinhard Bürger³

¹Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, 97403.

Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution

|June 2, 2017

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Deleterious mutation accumulation can drive small sexual populations to extinction. Obligate selfing is also not a viable long-term strategy, unlike obligate asexuality.

Keywords:

Extinction mutation accumulation obligate selfing random mating sexual species

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Published on: June 15, 2011

Area of Science:

Evolutionary biology
Population genetics

Background:

Deleterious mutation accumulation is a known extinction driver for asexual populations.
Its relevance to sexual species is often underestimated.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the impact of deleterious mutation accumulation on extinction risk in small sexual populations.
To compare extinction dynamics across different mating systems (outcrossing, selfing, asexual).

Main Methods:

Computer simulations
Analytical approximations

Main Results:

Small, random-mating sexual populations face significant extinction risk from mutation accumulation.
Extinction time increases exponentially with population size in outcrossing species.
Obligate selfing poses similar extinction risks to asexuality.
Mutations with intermediate effects present the greatest extinction risk.

Conclusions:

Deleterious mutation accumulation is a significant threat to small sexual populations.
This process may influence the evolution of mating systems.
Results provide upper bounds for extinction times, as stochasticity was not included.