Surprising fitness consequences of GC-biased gene conversion. II. Heterosis

Abstract

Heterosis is a widespread phenomenon corresponding to the increase in fitness following crosses between individuals from different populations or lines relative to their parents. Its genetic basis has been a topic of controversy since the early 20th century. The masking of recessive deleterious mutations in hybrids likely explains a substantial part of heterosis. The dynamics and consequences of these mutations have thus been studied in depth. Recently, it was suggested that GC-biased gene conversion (gBGC) might strongly affect the fate of deleterious mutations and may have significant fitness consequences. gBGC is a recombination-associated process mimicking selection in favor of G and C alleles, which can interfere with selection, for instance by increasing the frequency of GC deleterious mutations. I investigated how gBGC could affect the amount and genetic structure of heterosis through an analysis of the interaction between gBGC and selection in subdivided populations. To do so, I analyzed the infinite island model both by numerical computations and by analytical approximations. I showed that gBGC might have little impact on the total amount of heterosis but could greatly affect its genetic basis. Copyright © 2011 by the Genetics Society of America.