Familial versus mass selection in small populations.docVIP

Genet. Sel. Evol. 35(2003) 425–444 ?INRA, EDP Sciences, 2003 DOI: 10.1051/gse:2003032 425 Original article Familialversusmassselection insmallpopulations KonstantinosTHEODOROU ??,DenisCOUVET? Muséumnationald’histoirenaturelle, Centrederecherchessurlabiologiedespopulationsd’oiseaux, 55rueBuffon,75005Paris,France (Received25March2002;accepted18December2002) Abstract– WeuseddiffusionapproximationsandaMarkov-chainapproachtoinvestigatethe consequencesoffamilialselectionontheviabilityofsmallpopulationsbothintheshortandin thelongterm.Theoutcomeoffamilialselectionwascomparedtothecaseofarandommating populationunder mass selection. In small populations, the higher effective size, associated withfamilialselection,resultedinhigher?tnessforslightlydeleteriousand/orhighlyrecessive alleles. Conversely,becausefamilialselectionleadstoalowerrateofdirectionalselection,a lower?tnesswasobservedformoredetrimentalgenesthatarenothighlyrecessive,andwith highpopulationsizes. However,inthelongterm,geneticloadwasalmostidenticalforboth massandfamilialselectionforpopulationsofupto200individuals. Intermsofmeantime toextinction,familialselectiondidnothaveanynegativeeffectatleastforsmallpopulations (N ≤ 50). Overall,familialselectioncouldbeproposedforuseinmanagementprogramsof smallpopulationssinceitincreasesgeneticvariabilityandshort-termviabilitywithoutimpairing theoverallpersistencetimes. familialselection/deleteriousmutation/geneticload/extinction/geneticvariation 1.INTRODUCTION Haldane[17]de?nedfamilialselectionastheselectiveregimeunderwhich eachfamilyinapopulationcontributesthesamenumberofadultsinthenext generation.Selectionactsamongoffspringwithinfamiliesandnotamongthe entiresetof offspringproducedinthepopulationasinthecaseof massor ordinaryselection. Suchaselectionmayoccurinmammalswhenembryonicdeathsincrease the probability of survival of their sibs in the same litter, or in plants with restrictedseeddispersal[8]. However,theexactrealizationofthisselective ??Currentaddress:Uni