Simultaneous Estimation of Additive and Mutational Genetic Variance in an Outbred Population of Drosophila serrata.

ABSTRACT: How new mutations contribute to genetic variation is a key question in biology. Although the evolutionary fate of an allele is largely determined by its heterozygous effect, most estimates of mutational variance and mutational effects derive from highly inbred lines, where new mutations are present in homozygous form. In an attempt to overcome this limitation, middle-class neighborhood (MCN) experiments have been used to assess the fitness effect of new mutations in heterozygous form. However, because MCN populations harbor substantial standing genetic variance, estimates of mutational variance have not typically been available from such experiments. Here we employ a modification of the animal model to analyze data from 22 generations of Drosophila serrata bred in an MCN design. Mutational

SUBMITTER: McGuigan K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4649648 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature