Balancing selection in species with separate sexes: insights from Fisher's geometric model.

ABSTRACT: How common is balancing selection, and what fraction of phenotypic variance is attributable to balanced polymorphisms? Despite decades of research, answers to these questions remain elusive. Moreover, there is no clear theoretical prediction about the frequency with which balancing selection is expected to arise within a population. Here, we use an extension of Fisher's geometric model of adaptation to predict the probability of balancing selection in a population with separate sexes, wherein polymorphism is potentially maintained by two forms of balancing selection: (1) heterozygote advantage, where heterozygous individuals at a locus have higher fitness than homozygous individuals, and (2) sexually antagonistic selection (a.k.a. intralocus sexual conflict), where the fitness of each sex

SUBMITTER: Connallon T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4096376 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature