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Recombination load associated with selection for increased recombination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2009

B. Charlesworth  and
N. H. Barton
B. Charlesworth*
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology and Evolution, The University of Chicago, 1101 E. 57th St., Chicago, IL 60637-1573, U.S.A.
N. H. Barton
Affiliation:
Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, King's Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK
*
* B. Charlesworth, Department of Ecology and Evolution, The University of Chicago, 1101 E. 57th St., Chicago, IL 60637-1573, U.S.A. Phone: 312-702-8942; Fax: 312- 702-9740; E-mail: bcworth@pondside.uchicago.edu.
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Summary

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Experiments on Drosophila suggest that genetic recombination may result in lowered fitness of progeny (a ‘recombination load’). This has been interpreted as evidence either for a direct effect of recombination on fitness, or for the maintenance of linkage disequilibria by epistatic selection. Here we show that such a recombination load is to be expected even if selection favours increased genetic recombination. This is because of the fact that, although a modifier may suffer an immediate loss of fitness if it increases recombination, it eventually becomes associated with a higher additive genetic variance in fitness, which allows a faster response to directionselection. This argument applies to mutation-selection balance with synergistic epistasis, directional selection on quantitative traits, and ectopic exchange among transposable elements. Further experiments are needed to determine whether the selection against recombination due to trie immediate load is outweighed by the increased additive variance in fitness produced by recombination.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Genetics Research , Volume 67 , Issue 1 , February 1996 , pp. 27 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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