Migration-selection balance at multiple Loci and selection on dominance and recombination

PLoS One. 2014 Feb 14;9(2):e88651. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0088651. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

A steady influx of a single deleterious multilocus genotype will impose genetic load on the resident population and leave multiple descendants carrying various numbers of the foreign alleles. Provided that the foreign types are rare at equilibrium, and all immigrant genes are eventually eliminated by selection, the population structure can be inferred explicitly from the branching process taking place within a single immigrant lineage. Unless the migration and recombination rates were high, this novel method gives a close approximation to the simulation with all possible multilocus genotypes considered. Once the load and the foreign genotypes frequencies are known, it becomes possible to estimate selection acting on the invading modifiers of (i) dominance and (ii) recombination rate on the foreign gene block. We found that the modifiers of the (i) type are able to invade faster than the type (ii) modifier, however, this result only applies in the strong selection/low migration/low recombination scenario. Varying the number of genes in the immigrant genotype can have a non-monotonic effect on the migration load and the modifier's invasion rate: although blocks carrying more genes can give rise to longer lineages, they also experience stronger selection pressure. The heaviest load is therefore imposed by the genotypes carrying moderate numbers of genes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation
  • Genes, Dominant*
  • Genetic Loci*
  • Haplotypes / genetics
  • Human Migration*
  • Humans
  • Models, Genetic
  • Phylogeny
  • Recombination, Genetic*
  • Selection, Genetic*

Grants and funding

This work has been supported by the NSF grant EF-0742582 to SRP. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.