2006
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0000125
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Heterozygote Advantage for Fecundity

Abstract: Heterozygote advantage, or overdominance, remains a popular and persuasive explanation for the maintenance of genetic variation in natural populations in the face of selection. However, despite being first proposed more than 80 years ago, there remain few examples that fit the criteria for heterozygote advantage, all of which are associated with disease resistance and are maintained only in the presence of disease or other gene-by-environment interaction. Here we report five new examples of heterozygote advant… Show more

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Cited by 73 publications
(67 citation statements)
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“…Our results are in agreement with the theory of heterozygote advantage according to which heterozygous carriers present a selective advantage in viability and reproductive fitness over homozygous in natural populations [23]. Although the hypothesis of “heterozygosity-fitness” correlation has mainly been associated with disease resistance in evolutionary biology, some recent reports describe possible associations between specific polymorphisms and fertility [24,25]. A similar reproductive advantage among HRG heterozygous carriers cannot be ruled out.…”
Section: Discussionsupporting
confidence: 90%
“…Our results are in agreement with the theory of heterozygote advantage according to which heterozygous carriers present a selective advantage in viability and reproductive fitness over homozygous in natural populations [23]. Although the hypothesis of “heterozygosity-fitness” correlation has mainly been associated with disease resistance in evolutionary biology, some recent reports describe possible associations between specific polymorphisms and fertility [24,25]. A similar reproductive advantage among HRG heterozygous carriers cannot be ruled out.…”
Section: Discussionsupporting
confidence: 90%
“…Generally speaking, genetic drift explains well the increase in frequency of disease-causing mutations in local populations of recent origin, but does rather less convincingly so for a consistent trend across old and geographically separated populations [48]. On the other hand, balancing selection, involving a heterozygote advantage due to higher reproductive fitness, is a more likely explanation for the persistence of a deleterious founder mutation, thereby complementing the scarce evidence in humans (reviewed in [49]).…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…In the first, heterozygosity is favoured because some alleles will be advantageous when heterozygous, and disadvantageous when homozygous (Gemmell and Slate, 2006). Negative frequency-dependent selection (also termed rare allele advantage) can be driven by the selective advantage conferred by new or rare alleles in the population.…”
Section: Patterns Of Mhc Diversitymentioning
confidence: 99%