Experimental mutation-accumulation on the X chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster reveals stronger selection on males than females.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Sex differences in the magnitude or direction of mutational effect may be important to a variety of population processes, shaping the mutation load and affecting the cost of sex itself. These differences are expected to be greatest after sexual maturity. Mutation-accumulation (MA) experiments provide the most direct way to examine the consequences of new mutations, but most studies have focused on juvenile viability without regard to sex, and on autosomes rather than sex chromosomes; both adult fitness and X-linkage have been little studied. We therefore investigated the effects of 50 generations of X-chromosome mutation accumulation on the fitness of males and females derived from an outbred population of Drosophila melanogaster.

Results

Fitness declined rapidly

SUBMITTER: Mallet MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3134001 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature