Five Generations of Enforced Selfing and Outcrossing in Mimulus guttatus: Inbreeding Depression Variation at the Population and Family Level

Evolution ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele R. Dudash ◽  
David E. Carr ◽  
Charles B. Fenster
Genetics ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 136 (1) ◽  
pp. 323-331
Author(s):  
Y B Fu ◽  
K Ritland

Abstract The relative importance of different modes of gene expression of viability genes contributing to inbreeding depression was investigated in the wild plant, Mimulus guttatus. Viability genes were identified by self-fertilizing 31 outbred plants, each heterozygous for three to nine unlinked allozyme markers, and analyzing segregation ratios of selfed progeny at maturity for deviations from 1:2:1 ratios. In this study, 24 linkages of viability genes to marker loci were detected. To infer the nature of gene action for these viability genes, a "model-free" graphical method was developed that examines the "space" of segregation ratios allowed by each of seven selection models (i.e., overdominance, complete recessivity, partial recessivity, additivity, partial dominance, complete dominance and underdominance). Using this method, we found that, of 24 linkages detected, 18 were consistent with either partial dominance, complete dominance or underdominance. Six were consistent with either partial recessivity, complete recessivity or overdominance. This finding indicates that, in these chromosomal segments identified by allozyme markers, partial dominance plays the predominant role in inbreeding depression. This is inconsistent with either the dominance or overdominance hypotheses proposed to account for inbreeding depression.


Genome ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 1005-1010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong-Bi Fu ◽  
Kermit Ritland

Eight unlinked isozyme loci were used as genetic markers to characterize fecundity genes contributing to inbreeding depression in two selfed progeny arrays of Mimulus guttatus. Five fecundity traits were measured. Six of eight marked chromosomal segments were significantly associated with the expression of these traits. The number of genes detected for five traits in two progeny arrays varied, with an average of 2.8 genes per trait. Individual segments explained 1.44–9.29%, and together accounted for 3.85–11.32%, of phenotypic variation. Of 20 significant associations, 10 could be interpreted as exhibiting partial dominance, 7 overdominance, 3 partial recessivity, and 0 underdominance. Significant pairwise epistasis was rare. The results of this study suggest that inbreeding depression is caused by many deleterious genes of relatively small, partially dominant effects.Key words: linkage, isozymes, QTLs, inbreeding depression, Mimulus guttatus.


Genetics ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 153 (4) ◽  
pp. 1885-1898 ◽  
Author(s):  
John H Willis

Abstract The goal of this study is to provide information on the genetics of inbreeding depression in a primarily outcrossing population of Mimulus guttatus. Previous studies of this population indicate that there is tremendous inbreeding depression for nearly every fitness component and that almost all of this inbreeding depression is due to mildly deleterious alleles rather than recessive lethals or steriles. In this article I assayed the homozygous and heterozygous fitnesses of 184 highly inbred lines extracted from a natural population. Natural selection during the five generations of selfing involved in line formation essentially eliminated major deleterious alleles but was ineffective in purging alleles with minor fitness effects and did not appreciably diminish overall levels of inbreeding depression. Estimates of the average degree of dominance of these mildly deleterious alleles, obtained from the regression of heterozygous fitness on the sum of parental homozygous fitness, indicate that the detrimental alleles are partially recessive for most fitness traits, with h~∼0.15 for cumulative measures of fitness. The inbreeding load, B, for total fitness is ~1.0 in this experiment. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that spontaneous mildly deleterious mutations occur at a rate >0.1 mutation per genome per generation.


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