MBE Advance Access originally published online on May 28, 2008
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2008 25(8):1728-1736; doi:10.1093/molbev/msn124
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Published by Oxford University Press 2008.
Research Articles |
The Impact of Founder Events on Chromosomal Variability in Multiply Mating Species
Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley
E-mail: jpool{at}berkeley.edu
Accepted for publication May 21, 2008.
In species with heterogametic males, the relative levels of X chromosome versus autosome diversity hold key information about the evolutionary forces at work in a population. It has been shown that population size changes alter the ratio of X linked to autosomal (X/A) variation, with population size reductions and recent bottlenecks leading to decreased X/A diversity ratios. Here we use theory and simulation to investigate a separate demographic effect—that of founder events involving multiply mated females—and find that it leads to much stronger reductions in X/A diversity ratios than are produced by simple population size changes. Investigating the potential of this process to account for sharply reduced X-linked diversity in European Drosophila melanogaster, we find that this model yields predictions that are compatible with the empirical data.
Key Words: founder events multiple mating X-linked variation autosomal variation Drosophila melanogaster
Jeffrey Thorne, Associate Editor