Widespread Genetic Incompatibility in C. Elegans Maintained by Balancing Selection

Natural selection is expected to eliminate genetic incompatibilities from interbreeding populations. We have discovered a globally distributed incompatibility in the primarily selfing species Caenorhabditis elegans that has been maintained despite its negative consequences for fitness. Embryos homoz...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2008-02, Vol.319 (5863), p.589-594
Main Authors: Seidel, Hannah S, Rockman, Matthew V, Kruglyak, Leonid
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alleles
Animal reproduction
Animals
Animals, Genetically Modified
Biological and medical sciences
Caenorhabditis elegans
Caenorhabditis elegans - embryology
Caenorhabditis elegans - genetics
Classical genetics, quantitative genetics, hybrids
Cloning, Molecular
Crosses, Genetic
Disorders of Sex Development
Embryo, Nonmammalian - physiology
Embryonic Development
Embryos
Evolutionary biology
Evolutionary genetics
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gene Flow
Genes, Helminth
Genetic Linkage
Genetic loci
Genetic mutation
Genetics of eukaryotes. Biological and molecular evolution
Genome, Helminth
Genomes
Genomics
Haplotypes
Homozygotes
Invertebrata
Linkage Disequilibrium
Male
Molecular Sequence Data
Paternal effect
Penetrance
Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
Population genetics
Research Article
Selection, Genetic
Spermatozoa
Transgenes
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Summary:Natural selection is expected to eliminate genetic incompatibilities from interbreeding populations. We have discovered a globally distributed incompatibility in the primarily selfing species Caenorhabditis elegans that has been maintained despite its negative consequences for fitness. Embryos homozygous for a naturally occurring deletion of the zygotically acting gene zeel-1 arrest if their sperm parent carries an incompatible allele of a second, paternal-effect locus, peel-1. The two interacting loci are tightly linked, with incompatible alleles occurring in linkage disequilibrium in two common haplotypes. These haplotypes exhibit elevated sequence divergence, and population genetic analyses of this region indicate that natural selection is preserving both haplotypes in the population. Our data suggest that long-term maintenance of a balanced polymorphism has permitted the incompatibility to persist despite gene flow across the rest of the genome.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1151107