Unbalanced selection: the challenge of maintaining a social polymorphism when a supergene is selfish

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Download: Tafreshi_PTB_2022_supmat.pdf (662.11 [Ko])
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Serval ID
serval:BIB_3154F6B193A3
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
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Publications
Institution
Title
Unbalanced selection: the challenge of maintaining a social polymorphism when a supergene is selfish
Journal
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Author(s)
Tafreshi Alireza G., Otto Sarah P., Chapuisat Michel
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2022
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
377
Pages
20210197
Language
english
Abstract
Supergenes often have multiple phenotypic effects, including unexpected detrimental ones, because recombination suppression maintains associations among co-adapted alleles but also allows the accumulation of recessive deleterious mutations and selfish genetic elements. Yet, supergenes often persist over long evolutionary periods. How are such polymorphisms maintained in the face of selection, drive and drift? We present a population genetic model that investigates the conditions necessary for a stable polymorphic equilibrium when one of the supergene haplotypes is a selfish genetic element. The model fits the characteristics of the Alpine silver ant, Formica selysi, in which a large supergene underlies colony social organization, and one haplotype distorts Mendelian transmission by killing progeny that did not inherit it. The model shows that such maternal-effect killing strongly limits the maintenance of social polymorphism. Under random mating, transmission ratio distortion prevents rare single-queen colonies from invading populations of multiple-queen colonies, regardless of the fitness of each genotype. A stable polymorphic equilibrium can, however, be reached when high rates of assortative mating are combined with large fitness differences among supergene genotypes. The model reveals that the persistence of the social polymorphism is non-trivial and expected to occur only under restrictive conditions that deserve further empirical investigation.
Create date
14/12/2021 14:11
Last modification date
30/10/2023 9:40
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