Fitness Costs and Variation in Transmission Distortion Associated with the Abnormal Chromosome 10 Meiotic Drive System in Maize.

ABSTRACT: Meiotic drive describes a process whereby selfish genetic elements are transmitted at levels greater than Mendelian expectations. Maize abnormal chromosome 10 (Ab10) encodes a meiotic drive system that exhibits strong preferential segregation through female gametes. We performed transmission assays on nine Ab10 chromosomes from landraces and teosinte lines and found a transmission advantage of 62-79% in heterozygotes. Despite this transmission advantage, Ab10 is present at low frequencies in natural populations, suggesting that it carries large negative fitness consequences. We measured pollen transmission, the percentage of live pollen, seed production, and seed size to estimate several of the possible fitness effects of Ab10. We found no evidence that Ab10 affects pollen transmission,

SUBMITTER: Higgins DM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5753864 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature