Effect of selection against deleterious mutations on the decline in heterozygosity at neutral loci in closely inbreeding populations

Abstract

Transition matrices for selfing and full-sib mating were derived to investigate the effect of selection against deleterious mutations on the process of inbreeding at a linked neutral locus. Selection was allowed to act within lines only (selection type I) or equally within and between lines (type II). For selfing lines under selection type I, inbreeding is always retarded, the retardation being determined by the recombination fraction between the neutral and selected loci and the inbreeding depression from the selected locus, irrespective of the selection coefficient (s) and dominance coefficient (h) of the mutant allele. For selfing under selection type II or full-sib mating under both selection types, inbreeding is delayed by weak selection (small s and sh), due to the associative overdominance created at the neutral locus, and accelerated by strong selection, due to the elevated differential contributions between alternative alleles at the neutral locus within individuals and between lines (for selection type II). For multiple fitness loci under selection, stochastic simulations were run for populations with selfing, full-sib mating, and random mating, using empirical estimates of mutation parameters and inbreeding load in Drosophila. The simulations results are in general compatible with empirical observations.