title: How many lethal alleles?
abstract: Knowledge of the frequency of lethal mutant alleles in a population is important for our understanding of population genetics and evolution, and yet there have been few attempts to measure their number in wild populations. A new study has revealed unexpectedly low numbers of segregating lethal alleles in two species of fish. More experiments are needed, however, to know whether this result is general.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, EH9 3JT, Edinburgh, UK.
authors.forename: Daniel L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Halligan
authors.forename: Peter D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Keightley
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005399:Fishes / Q000235:genetics*; D005804:Genes, Lethal; D005808:Genes, Recessive; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006720:Homozygote; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009154:Mutation; D014981:Xenopus / Q000235:genetics