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Science 13 January 1995:
Vol. 267. no. 5195, pp. 226 - 229
DOI: 10.1126/science.267.5195.226
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Articles

Mutation Rates and Dominance Levels of Genes Affecting Total Fitness in Two Angiosperm Species

Mark O. Johnston 1 and Daniel J. Schoen 2

1 Department of Biology, Life Sciences Centre, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 4J1, Canada
2 Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205 Avenue Docteur Penfield, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 1B1, Canada

Theories about the evolution of sex and the effects of inbreeding depend on knowledge of the mutation rate and dominance level of deleterious alleles affecting total fitness. In two species of largely self-fertilizing annual plants, minimal estimates of such mutation rates were found to be 0.24 to 0.87 per sporophyte genome per generation, but confidence intervals exceeded 1.0 in each of the four populations. Dominance levels were near zero in one species and intermediate (0.28 to 0.35) in the other. These results suggest that the detrimental effects of inbreeding are a result of new partially recessive mutations rather than overdominance.

Submitted on July 13, 1994
Accepted on November 14, 1994


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