Journal
HEREDITY
Volume 123, Issue 6, Pages 709-722Publisher
SPRINGERNATURE
DOI: 10.1038/s41437-019-0263-6
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Funding
- UVigo Marine Research Centre - Excellence in Research (INUGA) Programme from the Regional Council of Culture, Education and Universities
- European Union through the ERDF Operational Programme Galicia 2014-2020
- Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI) [CGL2016-75904-C2-1-P]
- Xunta de Galicia [ED431C 2016-037]
- Fondos Feder: Unha maneira de facer Europa
- Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Spain
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Epistasis may have important consequences for a number of issues in quantitative genetics and evolutionary biology. In particular, synergistic epistasis for deleterious alleles is relevant to the mutation load paradox and the evolution of sex and recombination. Some studies have shown evidence of synergistic epistasis for spontaneous or induced deleterious mutations appearing in mutation-accumulation experiments. However, many newly arising mutations may not actually be segregating in natural populations because of the erasing action of natural selection. A demonstration of synergistic epistasis for naturally segregating alleles can be achieved by means of inbreeding depression studies, as deleterious recessive allelic effects are exposed in inbred lines. Nevertheless, evidence of epistasis from these studies is scarce and controversial. In this paper, we report the results of two independent inbreeding experiments carried out with two different populations of Drosophila melanogaster. The results show a consistent accelerated inbreeding depression for fitness, suggesting synergistic epistasis among deleterious alleles. We also performed computer simulations assuming different possible models of epistasis and mutational parameters for fitness, finding some of them to be compatible with the results observed. Our results suggest that synergistic epistasis for deleterious mutations not only occurs among newly arisen spontaneous or induced mutations, but also among segregating alleles in natural populations.
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