Selection Can Favor a Recombination Landscape That Limits Polygenic Adaptation
Tom Parée1,2, Luke Noble1,3, Denis Roze4
1Institut de Biologie, École Normale Supérieure, CNRS UMR 8197, Inserm U1024, PSL Research University, Paris 75005, France.
Molecular Biology and Evolution
|January 8, 2025
Summary
Altering recombination rates impacts adaptation. While decreased recombination hinders adaptation to new environments, selection indirectly favors it by unlinking beneficial and harmful genetic variations.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Genetics
- Molecular biology
Background:
- Selective pressures on recombination rate modifiers are not fully understood.
- The impact of recombination on adaptation to novel environments requires further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effects of altered meiotic crossover positions on adaptation.
- To determine the selective pressures acting on recombination rate modifiers.
Main Methods:
- Experimental evolution in Caenorhabditis elegans.
- Utilized alternative rec-1 alleles to modify meiotic crossover positions.
- Assessed adaptation to a novel environment and genetic variation associations.
Main Results:
- An allele decreasing recombination in regions with fitness variation impaired adaptation.
- Selection indirectly favored the maladaptive allele by increasing recombination.
- This indirect selection reduced associations between beneficial and deleterious genetic variations.
Conclusions:
- Results support theoretical models of recombination evolution.
- Indirect selection on recombination rate modifiers may be less significant for genome-wide polygenic adaptation.
Keywords:
C. elegansrec-1epistasisexperimental evolutiongenomic heritabilityindirect selectionlinked selectionmeiotic crossoverpolygenic adaptationpopulation genomicsrecombinationthe Hill–Robertson effectMore Related Videos
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