The response to selection on major and minor mutations affecting a metrical trait

Abstract

The joint evolution of major and minor mutations influencing a quantitative character is modelled in a large population. Empirical data on natural and domesticated populations, and analysis of the models, suggests that strong selection sustained over several generations is usually required for adaptive evolution by a major mutation, in order to overcome deleterious pleiotropic effects generally associated with major mutations. This helps to explain why adaptive evolution by major mutations occurs much more frequently in domesticated and artificially disturbed populations than in natural ones. © 1983, The Genetical Society of Great Britain.