Dominance of Deleterious Alleles Controls the Response to a Population Bottleneck.

ABSTRACT: Population bottlenecks followed by re-expansions have been common throughout history of many populations. The response of alleles under selection to such demographic perturbations has been a subject of great interest in population genetics. On the basis of theoretical analysis and computer simulations, we suggest that this response qualitatively depends on dominance. The number of dominant or additive deleterious alleles per haploid genome is expected to be slightly increased following the bottleneck and re-expansion. In contrast, the number of completely or partially recessive alleles should be sharply reduced. Changes of population size expose differences between recessive and additive selection, potentially providing insight into the prevalence of dominance in natural populations. Speci

SUBMITTER: Balick DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4552954 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature