Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T08:32:21.522Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The time of detection of recessive visible genes in small populations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2009

Alan Robertson
Alan Robertson
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Husbandry, University of Sydney, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia*
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Homozygotes for recessive visible genes have often been discovered in lines under artificial selection, sometimes many generations from the start. As a help in the interpretation of this phenomenon, the distribution of the time to first detection as a homozygote of a recessive gene occurring only once in the initial generation has been obtained. Alternatively the results may be considered as referring to the time of first appearance as a homozygote of a new mutation occurring in a finite population. For a monoecious random mating population of size N with selfing permitted, the mean time to detection is very close to 2N⅓ over a range of N from 1 to 500 with a coefficient of variation of roughly 2/3 and a 95% upper limit about 2·5 times the mean. If selfing is prohibited, the mean time is increased by a little over 1 generation. The treatment is extended to cover the effects of artificial selection in favour of the heterozygote, of the frequency of occurrence in the initial generation and of the examination of more individuals each generation than are used as parents.

Type
Research Article
Information
Genetics Research , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , June 1978 , pp. 255 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

References

REFERENCES

Clayton, G. A. & Robertson, A. (1957). An experimental check on quantitative genetic theory. II. The long-term effects of selection. Journal of Genetics 55, 152–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frankham, R., Briscoe, D. A. & Nurthen, R. K. (1978). Unequal crossing over at the rRNA locus as a source of quantitive variation. Nature 272, 80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hollingdale, B. (1971). Analyses of some genes from abdominal bristle number selection lines in Drosophila melanogaster. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 41, 292–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robertson, A. & Narain, P. (1971). The survival of recessive lethals in finite populations. Theoretical Population Biology 2, 24–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robertson, A. (1960). A theory of limits in artificial selection. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 153, 234–249.Google Scholar