Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-12T19:45:10.118Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The increase of balanced chromosome mutations in mammalian populations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2016

Bengt Olle Bengtsson*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford

Extract

Balanced, autosomal chromosome mutations do not change the genotype of animals that are hetero- or homozygotes for the mutation. However, in the gametes produced by a heterozygote animal, there normally exists a fraction with unbalanced chromosome complements. Such gametes are functionally effective in mammals and produce embryos with unbalanced genotypes, which leads to zygotic loss. The fertility of chromosomally heterozygote animals is thus lower than the fertility of homozygote animals. This fertility decrease of heterozygotes has been shown in a number of studies on translocations in mice, cattle and humans. The problem is, how such mutations can ever increase in a population until all animals are homozygotes for the chromosome change.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 1975 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Árnason, Ú. (1972) The role of chromosomal rearrangement in mammalian speciation with special reference to Cetacea and Pinnipedia. Hereditas 70, 113118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bodmer, W. F. and Felsenstein, J. (1967) Linkage and selection: Theoretical analysis of the deterministic two locus random mating model. Genetics 57, 237265.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kimura, M. (1970) Stochastic processes in population genetics, with special reference to distribution of gene frequencies and probability of gene fixation. In: Mathematical Topics in Population Genetics, pp. 178209. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, S. (1941) On the probability of fixation of reciprocal translocations. Amer. Natur. 75, 513522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar