Interrogating the Roles of Mutation-Selection Balance, Heterozygote Advantage, and Linked Selection in Maintaining Recessive Lethal Variation in Natural Populations

For nearly a century, evolutionary biologists have observed chromosomes that cause lethality when made homozygous persisting at surprisingly high frequencies (>25%) in natural populations of many species. The evolutionary forces responsible for the maintenance of such detrimental mutations have b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annual review of animal biosciences 2023-02, Vol.11 (1), p.77-91
Main Authors: Marion, Sarah B, Noor, Mohamed A.F
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
associative overdominance
Biological Evolution
Chromosomes
Genetic Variation
Heterozygote
heterozygote advantage
lethal
linked selection
Mutation
mutation-selection balance
Selection, Genetic
supergene
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Summary:For nearly a century, evolutionary biologists have observed chromosomes that cause lethality when made homozygous persisting at surprisingly high frequencies (>25%) in natural populations of many species. The evolutionary forces responsible for the maintenance of such detrimental mutations have been heavily debated-are some lethal mutations under balancing selection? We suggest that mutation-selection balance alone cannot explain lethal variation in nature and the possibility that other forces play a role. We review the potential that linked selection in particular may drive maintenance of lethal alleles through associative overdominance or linkage to beneficial mutations or by reducing effective population size. Over the past five decades, investigation into this mystery has tapered. During this time, key scientific advances have provided the ability to collect more accurate data and analyze them in new ways, making the underlying genetic bases and evolutionary forces of lethal alleles timely for study once more.
ISSN:2165-8102
2165-8110
DOI:10.1146/annurev-animal-050422-092520