Journal article

Evidence for epistasis: reply to Trouve et al.

  • Ebert, Dieter Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Salathé, P. Queen Street 2-600, Newmarket, Ontario L3Y 2H9, Canada
  • Kawecki, Tadeusz J. Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
    2004
Published in:
  • Journal of Evolutionary Biology. - 2004, vol. 17, no. 6, p. 1402-1404
English Salathé and Ebert (2003, J. Evol. Biol. 16: 976-985) have shown that the mean logarithmic fitness of Daphnia magna clones declined faster than linearly with increasing inbreeding coefficient F. They interpreted this result as evidence for synergistic epistasis. Trouve et al. (2004, J. Evol. Biol., doi: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2004.00755.x) suggested that hybrid vigour could be an alternative explanation for this finding. We use a population genetic model to support the original claim that the marked deviation from linearity cannot be explained without epistasis. We further argue that the relevant reference population is the metapopulation and not the subpopulation. Taken together, we believe that synergistic epistasis between recessive deleterious alleles segregating in the D. magna metapopulation is the most likely explanation for the finding of Salathé and Ebert.
Faculty
Faculté des sciences et de médecine
Department
Département de Biologie
Language
  • English
Classification
Biological sciences
License
License undefined
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/299622
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