Center for Data-Intensive Biomedicine and Biotechnology, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, 143026, Russia.
Laboratory of Evolutionary Genomics, A.N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology of Lomonosov Moscow State Universit, Moscow, 119992, Russia.
Biol Direct. 2018 Mar 2;13(1):4. doi: 10.1186/s13062-018-0206-9.
Natural selection is possible only because all species produce more offsprings than what is needed to maintain the population. Still, the lifetime number of offspring varies widely across species. One may expect natural selection to be stronger in high-fecundity species. Alternatively, natural selection could be stronger in species where a female invests more into an individual offspring. This issue needed to be addressed empirically.
We analyzed the prevalence of loss-of-function alleles in 35 metazoan species and have found that the strength of negative selection does not correlate with lifetime fecundity or other life-history traits.
Higher random mortality in high-fecundity species may negate the effect of increased opportunity for selection. Perhaps, invariance of the strength of negative selection across a wide variety of species emerges because natural selection optimized the life history in each of them, leading to the strongest possible competition.
This article was reviewed by Nicolas Galtier and I. King Jordan.
自然选择之所以成为可能，仅仅是因为所有物种产生的后代数量超过了维持种群数量所需的数量。尽管如此，不同物种的终生后代数量差异很大。人们可能会预期自然选择在高繁殖力物种中更为强烈。或者，自然选择可能在雌性对单个后代投入更多的物种中更为强烈。这一问题需要通过实证研究来解决。
我们分析了 35 种后生动物物种中失活等位基因的流行程度，发现负选择的强度与终生繁殖力或其他生活史特征无关。
高繁殖力物种中较高的随机死亡率可能会抵消选择机会增加的影响。也许，在广泛的物种范围内，负选择强度的不变性是因为自然选择优化了它们每一个物种的生活史，导致了最强劲的可能的竞争。
本文由 Nicolas Galtier 和 I. King Jordan 审稿。
