Segregation and the Evolution of Sex Under Overdominant Selection

Corresponding author: Sarah P. Otto, University of British Columbia, 6270 University Blvd., Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada., otto{at}zoology.ubc.ca (E-mail)

Communicating editor: M. K. UYENOYAMA

The segregation of alleles disrupts genetic associations at overdominant loci, causing a sexual population to experience a lower mean fitness compared to an asexual population. To investigate whether circumstances promoting increased sex exist within a population with heterozygote advantage, a model is constructed that monitors the frequency of alleles at a modifier locus that changes the relative allocation to sexual and asexual reproduction. The frequency of these modifier alleles changes over time as a correlated response to the dynamics at a fitness locus under overdominant selection. Increased sex can be favored in partially sexual populations that inbreed to some extent. This surprising finding results from the fact that inbred populations have an excess of homozygous individuals, for whom sex is always favorable. The conditions promoting increased levels of sex depend on the selection pressure against the homozygotes, the extent of sex and inbreeding in the population, and the dominance of the invading modifier allele.

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