Genetic Drift - Evolution - Britannica

Selection against one of the homozygotes

Suppose that one homozygous genotype, A2A2, has lower fitness than the other two genotypes, A1A1 and A1A2. (This is the situation in many human diseases, such as phenylketonuria [PKU] and sickle cell anemia, that are inherited in a recessive fashion and that require the presence of two deleterious mutant alleles for the trait to manifest.) The heterozygotes and the homozygotes for the normal allele (A1) have equal fitness, higher than that of the homozygotes for the deleterious mutant allele (A2). Call the fitness of these latter homozygotes 1 − s (the fitness of the other two genotypes is 1), and let p be the frequency of A1 and q the frequency of A2. It can be shown that the frequency of A2 will decrease each generation by an amount given by Δq = −spq2/(1 − sq2). The deleterious allele will continuously decrease in frequency until it has been eliminated. The rate of elimination is fastest when s = 1 (i.e., when the relative fitness w = 0); this occurs with fatal diseases, such as untreated PKU, when the homozygotes die before the age of reproduction.

Because of new mutations, the elimination of a deleterious allele is never complete. A dynamic equilibrium frequency will exist when the number of new alleles produced by mutation is the same as the number eliminated by selection. If the mutation rate at which the deleterious allele arises is u, the equilibrium frequency for a deleterious allele that is recessive is given approximately by q = Square root of√u/s, which, if s = 1, reduces to q = Square root of√u.

The mutation rate for many human recessive diseases is about 1 in 100,000 (u = 10−5). If the disease is fatal, the equilibrium frequency becomes q ≅ Square root of√10−5 = 0.003, or about 1 recessive lethal mutant allele for every 300 normal alleles. That is roughly the frequency in human populations of alleles that in homozygous individuals, such as those with PKU, cause death before adulthood. The equilibrium frequency for a deleterious, but not lethal, recessive allele is much higher. Albinism, for example, is due to a recessive gene. The reproductive efficiency of albinos is, on average, about 0.9 that of normal individuals. Therefore, s = 0.1 and q = Square root of√u/s = Square root of√10−5/10−1 = 0.01, or 1 in 100 genes rather than 1 in 300 as for a lethal allele.

For deleterious dominant alleles, the mutation-selection equilibrium frequency is given by p = u/s, which for fatal genes becomes p = u. If the gene is lethal even in single copy, all the genes are eliminated by selection in the same generation in which they arise, and the frequency of the gene in the population is the frequency with which it arises by mutation. One deleterious condition that is caused by a dominant allele present at low frequencies in human populations is achondroplasia, the most common cause of dwarfism. Because of abnormal growth of the long bones, achondroplastics have short, squat, often deformed limbs, along with bulging skulls. The mutation rate from the normal allele to the achondroplasia allele is about 5 × 10−5. Achondroplastics reproduce only 20 percent as efficiently as normal individuals; hence, s = 0.8. The equilibrium frequency of the mutant allele can therefore be calculated as p = u/s = 6.25 × 10−5.