Journal
GENETICS
Volume 187, Issue 1, Pages 217-227Publisher
GENETICS SOCIETY AMERICA
DOI: 10.1534/genetics.110.120808
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- French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche [ANR-08-GENM-036-01]
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Heterosis is a widespread phenomenon corresponding to the increase in fitness following crosses between individuals from different populations or lines relative to their parents. Its genetic basis has been a topic of controversy since the early 20th century. The masking of recessive deleterious mutations in hybrids likely explains a substantial part of heterosis. The dynamics and consequences of these mutations have thus been studied in depth. Recently, it was suggested that GC-biased gene conversion (gBGC) might strongly affect the fate of deleterious mutations and may have significant fitness consequences. gBGC is a recombination-associated process mimicking selection in favor of G and C alleles, which can interfere with selection, for instance by increasing the frequency of GC deleterious mutations. I investigated how gBGC could affect the amount and genetic structure of heterosis through an analysis of the interaction between gBGC and selection in subdivided populations. To do so, I analyzed the infinite island model both by numerical computations and by analytical approximations. I showed that gBGC might have little impact on the total amount of heterosis but could greatly affect its genetic basis.
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