Effects of inbreeding on balancing selection: insights from Fisher's geometric model.

ABSTRACT: Balancing selection is a potentially important factor in the maintenance of genetic variation for fitness and, alongside recessive deleterious mutations, the genetic basis of inbreeding depression. Classic population genetics theory predicts that inbreeding restricts the range of conditions leading to balancing selection. For example, in models of heterozygote advantage, the classic theory shows that inbreeding reduces the parameter conditions for balancing selection by a factor of 1-F, where F is Wright's inbreeding coefficient. However, without a model for the distribution of fitness effects of mutations or genotypes, this classic theory tells us little about the actual probability that new or segregating mutations meet criteria for balancing selection. Here, we develop an extension of F

SUBMITTER: Olito C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12406006 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature