Heterozygote deficiencies in parasite populations: an evaluation of interrelated hypotheses in the raccoon tick, Ixodes texanus.

ABSTRACT: Population genetics is increasingly being used to study the biology of parasites at the scales of both the host (infrapopulation, IP) and host population (component population, CP). In this study we tested three mechanistic hypotheses that could explain deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) expectations due to heterozygote deficits (HDs) at the CP scale in raccoon ticks (Ixodes texanus; n=718) collected from raccoons (Procyon lotor; n=91) and genotyped at 11 microsatellite loci. These hypotheses were presence of technical issues (for example, null alleles), hierarchical structure (for example, host demography) and cryptic structure (for example, kin structure). Although statistical support for null alleles existed, their presence would also be expected to lead to an underestimat

SUBMITTER: Dharmarajan G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3183868 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature