The evolutionary advantage of condition-dependent recombination in a Red Queen model with diploid antagonists

Abstract

Antagonistic interaction, like those between a host and its parasite, are known to cause oscillations in genetic structure of both species, usually referred to as Red Queen dynamics (RQD).The RQD is believed to be a plausible explanation for the evolution of sex/recombination, although numerous theoretical models showed that this may happen only under rather restricted parameter values (selection intensity, epistasis, etc.). Here, we consider two diploid antagonists, each with either two or three selected loci; the interaction is based on matching phenotypes model. We use the RQD, whenever it emerges in this system, as a substrate to examine the evolution of one recombination feature, condition dependence in diploids, which still remains an underexplored question. We consider several forms of condition-dependent recombination, with recombination rates in the host being sensitive either to the parasite's mean fitness, or to the host's infection status, or to the host's genotype fitness. We show that all form of condition-dependent recombination can be favored over the corresponding optimal constant recombination rate, even including situations in which the optimal constant recombination rate is zero. BACKGROUNDAntagonistic interactions, like those between a host and its parasite, a prey and its predator, or a plant and its herbivore, are omnipresent in nature. Such interactions are long known to cause more or less regular oscillatory dynamics. In early 1920s Lotka[1] and Volterra [2] theoretically predicted oscillations in the ecological dynamics of the antagonists, i.e. in their population size or population density. The anticipated pattern was then observed both in field and lab; remarkably, pairs of host/parasite [3][4][5], prey/predator [6][7][8], and plant/herbivore [9] behaved in a qualitatively similar way,

The evolutionary advantage of fitness‐dependent recombination in diploids: A deterministic mutation–selection balance model

“…The evolutionary advantage of FD recombination in diploids was observed in several population genetics models: mutation‐selection balance (the herein presented results), cyclical selection (Rybnikov et al, ), and Red Queen dynamics (Rybnikov, Frenkel, Fahima, & Korol, ), which argues for the universality of the underlying mechanism. Remarkably, in all three mentioned population genetics models, FD recombination was shown to be favored under certain parameter combinations even if any constant nonzero RR was disfavored.…”

Fitness-Dependent Recombination Can Be Evolutionarily Advantageous in Diploids: a Deterministic Mutation–Selection–Balance Model

“…The evolutionary advantage of FD recombination in diploids was observed in several population-genetics models: mutation-selection balance (the herein presented results), cyclical selection (Rybnikov et al, 2017), and Red Queen dynamics (Rybnikov et al, 2018), which argues for universality of the underlying mechanism. Remarkably, in all three mentioned population-genetics models FD recombination was shown to be favored under certain parameter combinations even if any constant non-zero RR was rejected.…”

Desiccation-induced changes in recombination rate and crossover interference in Drosophila melanogaster: evidence for fitness-dependent plasticity

“…In diploids, the "abandon-ship" mechanism has been shown to be inefficient (Agrawal et al 2005). However, our recent simulations demonstrate that fitness-dependent recombination can evolve in diploids under certain scenarios, such as cyclical selection (Rybnikov et al 2017), Red Queen dynamics (Rybnikov et al 2018a), and mutation-selection balance (Rybnikov et al 2018b). In all our models, fitness-dependence was assumed only for recombination within the selected system.…”