School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University AgCenter, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA.
Mol Ecol. 2010 Oct;19(20):4454-61. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2010.04824.x. Epub 2010 Sep 20.
Heterozygosity-fitness correlations use molecular measures of heterozygosity as proxy estimates of individual inbreeding coefficients (f) to examine relationships between inbreeding and fitness traits. Heterozygosity-fitness correlations partly depend on the assumption that individual heterozygosity and f are strongly and negatively correlated. Although theory predicts that this relationship will be strongest when mean f and variance in f are high, few studies of heterozygosity-fitness correlations include estimates of f based on pedigrees, which allow for more thorough examinations of the relationship between f, heterozygosity and fitness in nature. We examined relationships between pedigree-based estimates of f, multilocus heterozygosity (MLH) and the probability of survival to hatch in song sparrow nestmates. f and MLH were weakly, but significantly negatively correlated. Inbreeding coefficient predicted the probability of survival to hatch. In contrast, MLH did not predict the probability of survival to hatch nor did it account for residual variation in survival to hatch after statistically controlling for the effects of f. These results are consistent with the expectation that heterozygosity-f correlations will be weak when mean and variance in f are low. Our results also provide empirical support for recent simulation studies, which show that variation in MLH among siblings with equal f can be large and may obscure MLH-fitness relationships.
杂合度-适合度相关性使用分子杂合度作为个体近交系数 (f) 的代理估计值,以检验近交与适合度特征之间的关系。杂合度-适合度相关性部分取决于个体杂合度和 f 之间存在强烈负相关的假设。尽管理论预测当平均 f 和 f 的方差较高时,这种关系将最强,但很少有关于杂合度-适合度相关性的研究包括基于系谱的 f 估计值,这可以更彻底地研究自然中 f、杂合度和适合度之间的关系。我们研究了基于系谱的 f、多位点杂合度 (MLH) 与鸣禽巢内个体孵出存活率之间的关系。f 和 MLH 呈弱但显著负相关。近交系数预测了孵出的存活率。相比之下,MLH 既不能预测孵出的存活率,也不能在统计控制 f 效应后解释孵出存活率的剩余变异。这些结果与当 f 的平均值和方差较低时,杂合度-相关性将较弱的预期一致。我们的结果还为最近的模拟研究提供了经验支持,这些研究表明,具有相等 f 的兄弟姐妹之间的 MLH 变异可能很大,并且可能掩盖 MLH-适合度关系。