A Ruby in the Rubbish: Beneficial Mutations, Deleterious Mutations and the Evolution of Sex

INVESTIGATIONS

A Ruby in the Rubbish: Beneficial Mutations, Deleterious Mutations and the Evolution of Sex

J. R. Peck
Department of Zoology, The University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, Great Britain

This study presents a mathematical model in which a single beneficial mutation arises in a very large population that is subject to frequent deleterious mutations. The results suggest that, if the population is sexual, then the deleterious mutations will have little effect on the ultimate fate of the beneficial mutation. However, if most offspring are produced asexually, then the probability that the beneficial mutation will be lost from the population may be greatly enhanced by the deleterious mutations. Thus, sexual populations may adapt much more quickly than populations where most reproduction is asexual. Some of the results were produced using computer simulation methods, and a technique was developed that allows treatment of arbitrarily large numbers of individuals in a reasonable amount of computer time. This technique may be of prove useful for the analysis of a wide variety of models, though there are some constraints on its applicability. For example, the technique requires that reproduction can be described by Poisson processes.

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				Y. Kim Allele Frequency Distribution Under Recurrent Selective Sweeps Genetics, March 1, 2006; 172(3): 1967 - 1978. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Paland and M. Lynch Transitions to asexuality result in excess amino acid substitutions. Science, February 17, 2006; 311(5763): 990 - 992. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				G. Martin, S. P. Otto, and T. Lenormand Selection for Recombination in Structured Populations Genetics, January 1, 2006; 172(1): 593 - 609. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J.-B. Andre and B. Godelle The Evolution of Mutation Rate in Finite Asexual Populations Genetics, January 1, 2006; 172(1): 611 - 626. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. T. Gerrard and D. A. Filatov Positive and Negative Selection on Mammalian Y Chromosomes Mol. Biol. Evol., June 1, 2005; 22(6): 1423 - 1432. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				G. Marais, P. Nouvellet, P. D. Keightley, and B. Charlesworth Intron Size and Exon Evolution in Drosophila Genetics, May 1, 2005; 170(1): 481 - 485. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				K. A. Dyer and J. Jaenike Evolutionarily Stable Infection by a Male-Killing Endosymbiont in Drosophila innubila: Molecular Evidence From the Host and Parasite Genomes Genetics, November 1, 2004; 168(3): 1443 - 1455. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. Bachtrog Protein Evolution and Codon Usage Bias on the Neo-Sex Chromosomes of Drosophila miranda Genetics, November 1, 2003; 165(3): 1221 - 1232. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. R. Roth, E. Kofoid, F. P. Roth, O. G. Berg, J. Seger, and D. I. Andersson Regulating General Mutation Rates: Examination of the Hypermutable State Model for Cairnsian Adaptive Mutation Genetics, April 1, 2003; 163(4): 1483 - 1496. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				I. M. Rouzine, J. Wakeley, and J. M. Coffin The solitary wave of asexual evolution PNAS, January 21, 2003; 100(2): 587 - 592. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. J. Betancourt and D. C. Presgraves Linkage limits the power of natural selection in Drosophila PNAS, October 15, 2002; 99(21): 13616 - 13620. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. C. Shaver, P. G. Dombrowski, J. Y. Sweeney, T. Treis, R. M. Zappala, and P. D. Sniegowski Fitness Evolution and the Rise of Mutator Alleles in Experimental Escherichia coli Populations Genetics, October 1, 2002; 162(2): 557 - 566. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				T. Johnson and N. H. Barton The Effect of Deleterious Alleles on Adaptation in Asexual Populations Genetics, September 1, 2002; 162(1): 395 - 411. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. D. Fry and S. L. Heinsohn Environment Dependence of Mutational Parameters for Viability in Drosophila melanogaster Genetics, July 1, 2002; 161(3): 1155 - 1167. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				W. R. Rice and A. K. Chippindale Sexual Recombination and the Power of Natural Selection Science, October 19, 2001; 294(5542): 555 - 559. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. Sanford and M. D. Perry Asymmetrically distributed oligonucleotide repeats in the Caenorhabditis elegans genome sequence that map to regions important for meiotic chromosome segregation Nucleic Acids Res., July 15, 2001; 29(14): 2920 - 2926. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. D. Peters and P. D. Keightley A Test for Epistasis Among Induced Mutations in Caenorhabditis elegans Genetics, December 1, 2000; 156(4): 1635 - 1647. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				D. D. G. Gessler and S. Xu Meiosis and the Evolution of Recombination at Low Mutation Rates Genetics, September 1, 2000; 156(1): 449 - 456. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				Y. Kim and W. Stephan Joint Effects of Genetic Hitchhiking and Background Selection on Neutral Variation Genetics, July 1, 2000; 155(3): 1415 - 1427. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				H. A. Orr The Rate of Adaptation in Asexuals Genetics, June 1, 2000; 155(2): 961 - 968. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				T. Takano-Shimizu Local Recombination and Mutation Effects on Molecular Evolution in Drosophila Genetics, November 1, 1999; 153(3): 1285 - 1296. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				D. Waxman and J. R. Peck Sex and Adaptation in a Changing Environment Genetics, October 1, 1999; 153(2): 1041 - 1053. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				T. Johnson Beneficial Mutations, Hitchhiking and the Evolution of Mutation Rates in Sexual Populations Genetics, April 1, 1999; 151(4): 1621 - 1631. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				H. A. Orr and Y. Kim An Adaptive Hypothesis for the Evolution of the Y Chromosome Genetics, December 1, 1998; 150(4): 1693 - 1698. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				N. H. Barton and B. Charlesworth Why Sex and Recombination? Science, September 25, 1998; 281(5385): 1986 - 1990. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				W. R. Rice Male fitness increases when females are eliminated from gene pool: Implications for the Y chromosome PNAS, May 26, 1998; 95(11): 6217 - 6221. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]