The diffusion model for migration and selection in a dioecious population
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 4, 2026

Determination of the Mating Efficiency of Haploids in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Published on: December 2, 2022
1Department of Ecology and Evolution, The University of Chicago, Ilinois 60637-1573, USA.
Abstract:
The diffusion approximation is derived for migration and selection at a multiallelic locus in a dioecious population subdivided into a lattice of panmictic colonies. Generations are discrete and nonoverlapping; autosomal and X-linked loci are analyzed. The relation between juvenile and adult subpopulation numbers is very general and includes both soft and hard selection; the zygotic sex ratio is the same in every colony. All the results hold for both adult and juvenile migration. If ploidy-weighted average selection, drift, and diffusion coefficients are used, then the ploidy-weighted average allelic frequencies satisfy the corresponding partial differential equation for a monoecious population. The boundary conditions and the unidimensional transition conditions for coincident discontinuities in the carrying capacity and migration rate extend identically. The previous unidimensional formulation and analysis of symmetric, nearest-neighbor migration of a monoecious population across a geographical barrier is generalized to symmetric migration of arbitrary finite range, and the transition conditions are shown to hold for a dioecious population. Thus, the entire theory of clines and of the wave of advance of favorable alleles is applicable to dioecious populations.
Related Concept Videos
Gene Flow
Types of Selection
Mutation, Gene Flow, and Genetic Drift
Modeling with Differential Equations
Mate Choice
Genetic Drift

