RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A non-coding indel polymorphism in the <em>fruitless</em> gene of <em>Drosophila melanogaster</em> exhibits antagonistically pleiotropic fitness effects
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.12.01.406447
DO 10.1101/2020.12.01.406447
A1 Michael D. Jardine
A1 Filip Ruzicka
A1 Charlotte Diffley
A1 Kevin Fowler
A1 Max Reuter
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/12/02/2020.12.01.406447.abstract
AB The amount of genetic variation for fitness within populations tends to exceed that expected under mutation-selection-drift balance. Several mechanisms have been proposed to actively maintain polymorphism and account for this discrepancy, including antagonistic pleiotropy (AP), where allelic variants have opposing effects on different components of fitness. Here we identify a non-coding indel polymorphism in the fruitless gene of Drosophila melanogaster and measure survival and reproductive components of fitness in males and females of replicate lines carrying one or the other allele. Expressing the fruitless region in a hemizygous state we observe a pattern of AP, with one allele resulting in greater reproductive fitness while the other confers greater survival to adulthood. Different fitness effects were observed in an alternative genetic background, suggesting widespread epistatic effects. Our findings link sequence-level variation at a single locus with complex effects on a range of fitness components, thus helping to explain the maintenance of genetic variation for fitness. Transcription factors, such as fruitless, may be prime candidates for targets of balancing selection since they interact with multiple target loci and their associated phenotypic effects.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.