Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T05:41:13.799Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A theoretical analysis of linkage disequilibrium produced by genetic drift in Drosophila populations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2009

Catherine Montchamp-Moreau
Affiliation:
Laboratoire* de Génétique des Populations, Universités Paris 6 et Paris 7, Tour 42, 2 place Jussieu, 75005 PARIS
Mariano Katz
Affiliation:
Laboratoire* de Génétique des Populations, Universités Paris 6 et Paris 7, Tour 42, 2 place Jussieu, 75005 PARIS
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

We analyse the progression of linkage disequilibrium produced by random genetic drift in populations subject to cyclical fluctuations in size. Our model is applied to natural populations of Drosophila which show an annual demographic cycle of bottleneck (finite size) and demographic burst (size supposed to be infinite). In these populations, linkage disequilibrium stabilizes in such a way that, at equilibrium, the expected square of the correlation of gene frequencies E(r2) shows a stable cycle from year to year. If two loci are tightly linked, E(r2) barely varies during the annual cycle. Its values remain close to the value expected in a population of the same but constant effective size. If two loci are loosely linked, fluctuations in E(r2) are large. The maximum value, reached at the end of the bottleneck, is 10 to 100 times greater than the value obtained at the end of the burst. Our results show that the interpretation of observed linkage disequilibrium, by means of statistical tests, requires an accurate knowledge of population demography.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

References

Begon, M. (1977). The effective size of a natural Drosophila subobscura population. Heredity 38, 1318.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hedrick, P. W. (1983). Genetics of Populations. Boston: Science Books International.Google Scholar
Hill, W. G. (1976). Non-random association of neutral linked genes in finite populations. In Population Genetics and Ecology, (ed. Karlin, S. and Nevo, E.) pp. 339376. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hill, W. G. (1981). Estimation of effective population size from data on linkage disequilibrium. Genetical Research 38, 209216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, W. G. & Robertson, A. (1968). Linkage disequilibrium in finite populations. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 38, 226231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Langley, C. H. (1977). Non-random associations between allozymes in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster. In Measuring Selection in Natural Populations (ed. Christiansen, F. B. and Fenchel, T. M.), pp. 265273, Berlin: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langley, C. H., Ito, K. & Voelker, R. A. (1977). Linkage disequilibrium in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster, seasonal variation. Genetics 86, 447454.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McInnis, D. O., Schaffer, H. E. & Mettler, L. E. (1982). Field dispersal and population sizes of native Drosophila from North Carolina. American Naturalist 119–3, 319330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montchamp-Moreau, C. (1985). Analyse du déséquilibre gamétique dans des populations naturelles et expérimentales de Drosophila simulans. Thèse d'Etat, Université Paris 6, Paris.Google Scholar
Mukai, T., Mettler, L. E. & Chigusa, S. I. (1971). Linkage disequilibrium in a local population of Drosophila melanogaster. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. 68, 10651069.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prout, T. (1973). Appendix to Mitton, J. B. & Koehn, R. C. Population genetics of marine pelecypods. III. Epistasis between functional related isoenzymes in Mytilus edulis. Genetics 73, 487496.Google Scholar
Sved, J. A. & Feldman, M. W. (1973). Correlation and probability methods for one and two loci. Theoretical Population Biology 4, 129132.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weir, B. S. & Hill, W. G. (1980). Effect of mating structure on variation in linkage disequilibrium. Genetics 95, 477488.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed