No evidence of positive assortative mating for genetic quality in fruit flies.

ABSTRACT: In sexual populations, the effectiveness of selection will depend on how gametes combine with respect to genetic quality. If gametes with deleterious alleles are likely to combine with one another, deleterious genetic variation can be more easily purged by selection. Assortative mating, where there is a positive correlation between parents in a phenotype of interest such as body size, is often observed in nature, but does not necessarily reveal how gametes ultimately combine with respect to genetic quality itself. We manipulated genetic quality in fruit fly populations using an inbreeding scheme designed to provide an unbiased measure of mating patterns. While inbred flies had substantially reduced reproductive success, their gametes did not combine with those of other inbred flies more of

SUBMITTER: Sharp NP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6790784 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature