Phylogenetic analysis suggests that sociality is associated with reduced effectiveness of selection.

ABSTRACT: The evolution of sociality in spiders is associated with female bias, reproductive skew and an inbreeding mating system, factors that cause a reduction in effective population size and increase effects of genetic drift. These factors act to decrease the effectiveness of selection, thereby increasing the fixation probability of deleterious mutations. Comparative studies of closely related species with contrasting social traits and mating systems provide the opportunity to test consequences of low effective population size on the effectiveness of selection empirically. We used phylogenetic analyses of three inbred social spider species and seven outcrossing subsocial species of the genus Stegodyphus, and compared dN/dS ratios and codon usage bias between social Inbreeding and subsocial outcr

SUBMITTER: Settepani V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4729245 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature