Abundant multilocus polymorphisms caused by genetic interaction between species on trait-for-trait basis.

This paper deals with the problem of polymorphism maintenance in species coevolution mediated by selection for quantitative traits controlled by Mendelian genes. We showed here that the conditions for polymorphism maintenance in interacting species can be deduced from the behavior of the isolated partners in stable and changing environments. This allows also to address such difficult questions as evolution of sex and recombination, that can not be considered properly in non-Mendelian models. An abundance of polymorphic regimes was revealed in the proposed genetic model. The obtained results demonstrate a remarkable property of trait-dependent coevolution concerning the conditions for maintenance of genetic polymorphism: what seems to be more realistic, that is, non-equal gene effects and deviation from purely additive within-locus gene action, promotes polymorphism.