Obstruction of adaptation in diploids by recessive, strongly deleterious alleles.

ABSTRACT: Recessive deleterious mutations are common, causing many genetic disorders in humans and producing inbreeding depression in the majority of sexually reproducing diploids. The abundance of recessive deleterious mutations in natural populations suggests they are likely to be present on a chromosome when a new adaptive mutation occurs, yet the dynamics of recessive deleterious hitchhikers and their impact on adaptation remains poorly understood. Here we model how a recessive deleterious mutation impacts the fate of a genetically linked dominant beneficial mutation. The frequency trajectory of the adaptive mutation in this case is dramatically altered and results in what we have termed a "staggered sweep." It is named for its three-phased trajectory: (i) Initially, the two linked mutations hav

SUBMITTER: Assaf ZJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4443376 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature