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Sex initiates adaptive evolution by recombination between beneficial loci
Current theory proposes that sex can increase genetic variation and produce high fitness genotypes if genetic associations between alleles at different loci are non-random. In case beneficial and deleterious alleles at different loci are in linkage disequilibrium, sex may i) recombine beneficial all...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2017
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5456038/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28575015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177895 |
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author | Scheuerl, Thomas Stelzer, Claus-Peter |
author_facet | Scheuerl, Thomas Stelzer, Claus-Peter |
author_sort | Scheuerl, Thomas |
collection | PubMed |
description | Current theory proposes that sex can increase genetic variation and produce high fitness genotypes if genetic associations between alleles at different loci are non-random. In case beneficial and deleterious alleles at different loci are in linkage disequilibrium, sex may i) recombine beneficial alleles of different loci, ii) liberate beneficial alleles from genetic backgrounds of low fitness, or iii) recombine deleterious mutations for more effective elimination. In our study, we found that the first mechanism dominated the initial phase of adaptive evolution in Brachionus calyciflorus rotifers during a natural selection experiment. We used populations that had been locally adapted to two environments previously, creating a linkage disequilibrium between beneficial and deleterious alleles at different loci in a combined environment. We observed the highest fitness increase when several beneficial alleles of different loci could be recombined, while the other mechanisms were ineffective. Our study thus provides evidence for the hypothesis that sex can speed up adaptation by recombination between beneficial alleles of different loci, in particular during early stages of adaptive evolution in our system. We also suggest that the benefits of sex might change over time and state of adaptive progress. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5456038 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-54560382017-06-12 Sex initiates adaptive evolution by recombination between beneficial loci Scheuerl, Thomas Stelzer, Claus-Peter PLoS One Research Article Current theory proposes that sex can increase genetic variation and produce high fitness genotypes if genetic associations between alleles at different loci are non-random. In case beneficial and deleterious alleles at different loci are in linkage disequilibrium, sex may i) recombine beneficial alleles of different loci, ii) liberate beneficial alleles from genetic backgrounds of low fitness, or iii) recombine deleterious mutations for more effective elimination. In our study, we found that the first mechanism dominated the initial phase of adaptive evolution in Brachionus calyciflorus rotifers during a natural selection experiment. We used populations that had been locally adapted to two environments previously, creating a linkage disequilibrium between beneficial and deleterious alleles at different loci in a combined environment. We observed the highest fitness increase when several beneficial alleles of different loci could be recombined, while the other mechanisms were ineffective. Our study thus provides evidence for the hypothesis that sex can speed up adaptation by recombination between beneficial alleles of different loci, in particular during early stages of adaptive evolution in our system. We also suggest that the benefits of sex might change over time and state of adaptive progress. Public Library of Science 2017-06-02 /pmc/articles/PMC5456038/ /pubmed/28575015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177895 Text en © 2017 Scheuerl, Stelzer http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Scheuerl, Thomas Stelzer, Claus-Peter Sex initiates adaptive evolution by recombination between beneficial loci |
title | Sex initiates adaptive evolution by recombination between beneficial loci |
title_full | Sex initiates adaptive evolution by recombination between beneficial loci |
title_fullStr | Sex initiates adaptive evolution by recombination between beneficial loci |
title_full_unstemmed | Sex initiates adaptive evolution by recombination between beneficial loci |
title_short | Sex initiates adaptive evolution by recombination between beneficial loci |
title_sort | sex initiates adaptive evolution by recombination between beneficial loci |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5456038/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28575015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177895 |
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