Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
Genetics. 2010 Apr;184(4):1153-64. doi: 10.1534/genetics.109.112920. Epub 2010 Feb 5.
Although the evolution of recombination is still a major problem in evolutionary genetics, recent theoretical studies have shown that recombination can evolve by breaking down interference ("Hill-Robertson effects") among multiple loci. This leads to selection on a recombination modifier in a population subject to recurrent deleterious mutation. Here, we use computer simulations to investigate the evolution of a recombination modifier under three different scenarios of recurrent mutation in a finite population: (1) mutations are deleterious only, (2) mutations are advantageous only, and (3) there is a mixture of deleterious and advantageous mutations. We also investigate how linkage disequilibrium, the strength of selection acting on a modifier, and effective population size change under the different scenarios. We observe that adding even a small number of advantageous mutations increases the fixation rate of modifiers that increase recombination, especially if the effects of deleterious mutations are weak. However, the strength of selection on a modifier is less than the summed strengths had there been deleterious mutations only and advantageous mutations only.
尽管重组的进化仍然是进化遗传学中的一个主要问题，但最近的理论研究表明，重组可以通过打破多个基因座之间的干扰（“Hill-Robertson 效应”）来进化。这导致在经常发生有害突变的种群中对重组修饰因子进行选择。在这里，我们使用计算机模拟来研究在有限种群中反复发生突变的三种不同情况下重组修饰因子的进化：（1）只有突变是有害的，（2）只有突变是有利的，（3）有害突变和有利突变混合存在。我们还研究了连锁不平衡、修饰因子上的选择强度以及在不同情况下有效种群大小的变化。我们观察到，即使增加少量有利突变也会增加增加重组的修饰因子的固定率，特别是如果有害突变的影响较弱的话。然而，修饰因子上的选择强度小于只有有害突变和只有有利突变时的总和强度。
