The impact of local population genetic background on the spread of the selfish element Medea-1 in red flour beetles.

ABSTRACT: Selfish genetic elements have been found in the genomes of many species, yet our understanding of their evolutionary dynamics is only partially understood. A number of distinct selfish Medea elements are naturally present in many populations of the red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum). Although these Medea elements are predicted by models to increase in frequency within populations because any offspring of a Medea-bearing mother that do not inherit at least one Medea allele will die, experiments demonstrating an increase in a naturally occurring Medea element are lacking. Our survey of the specific Medea element, M¹, in the United States showed that it had a patchy geographic distribution. From the survey, it could not be

SUBMITTER: Cash SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6988536 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature