Originally published as Genetics Published Articles Ahead of Print on May 4, 2007.

Genetics, Vol. 176, 1923-1929, July 2007, Copyright © 2007
doi:10.1534/genetics.106.069997

Two-Locus Epistasis With Sexually Antagonistic Selection: A Genetic Parrondo's Paradox

Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742

1 Address for correspondence: Department of Biology, Bldg. 144, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-5815.
E-mail: freed{at}umd.edu

An example is provided where, with antagonistic selection and epistatic interaction of alleles at two loci, an autosomal allele can rise in frequency, persist in the population, and even continue to fixation, despite having an apparently lower average fitness than the alternative allele, in a process similar to Parrondo's paradox.