Nick Barton
Institute of Science and Technology Austria
Linkage and the limits to selection
[When and where]
Adaptation in a sexual population is ultimately limited by linkage: the maximum rate at which beneficial mutations can be incorporated is proportional to the recombination rate. The same limit applies to our attempts to detect selection in experimental populations or across spatial clines in nature. In experimental populations, the alleles responsible for selection response will be hard to detect if selection is spread over many loci; conversely, though strongly selected alleles can readily be detected, they may be hard to locate precisely on the genetic map. Selection can also be estimated from the width of natural clines, but again, the precision with which causal alleles can be located is limited by linkage. This is illustrated clines around tightly linked flower colour loci in snapdragons (Antirrhinum).
Invited talk Mini-symposium 10
Updated May 13, 2015, by Minus