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Selection against harmful mutations in large sexual and asexual populations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2009

Alexey S. Kondrashov
Alexey S. Kondrashov
Affiliation:
Research Computer Centre of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Pushchino, Moscow Region, 142292, USSR
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Summary

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Selection against harmful mutations in large populations is studied assuming that the rate of fitness decrease grows with every new mutation added to a genome. Under this reasonable assumption (Mayr, 1970) the average fitness of a sexual population, without linkage between the loci, is higher, and the average equilibrium number of harmful mutations per individual lower, than in an asexual population. If a gamete contains on the average one or more new mutations, the resulting advantage of sexual reproduction and recombination seems to be sufficient to counterbalance the double advantage of parthenogenesis. Moreover, selection against harmful mutations is probably the most powerful factor preventing linkage disequilibrium even with epistatic interaction between the loci.

Type
Short Paper
Information
Genetics Research , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , December 1982 , pp. 325 - 332
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

References

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