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Protection of Recessive and Dominant Traits in a Subdivided Population with General Migration Structure
The American Naturalist
|March 8, 2018
Summary
We identified conditions protecting recessive alleles from extinction in diverse populations. A specific weighted average fitness must exceed one for allele protection, regardless of migration patterns.
Area of Science:
- Population Genetics
- Evolutionary Biology
- Mathematical Biology
Background:
- Recessive alleles are vulnerable to loss in structured populations.
- Understanding migration-selection balance is crucial for evolutionary dynamics.
Purpose of the Study:
- Determine explicit conditions for protecting a recessive allele.
- Analyze the impact of arbitrary migration structures on allele protection.
Main Methods:
- Mathematical modeling of population subdivision and migration.
- Analysis of backward migration matrices and left eigenvectors.
- Calculation of weighted average fitness for genotypes.
Main Results:
- Derived a necessary and sufficient condition for recessive allele protection: weighted average fitness of the recessive genotype must exceed unity.
- Demonstrated that allele fixation (A vs. a) cannot stably coexist.
- The condition holds for both soft and hard selection models.
Conclusions:
- The derived condition provides a universal criterion for recessive allele persistence.
- This framework is applicable to various migration models, including stepping-stone and Island models.
- Highlights the critical role of migration patterns and local fitness in allele survival.
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