title: Frequency-dependent selection maintains clonal diversity in an asexual organism.
abstract: Asexual organisms can be genetically variable and evolve through time, yet it is not known how genetic diversity is maintained in populations. In sexual organisms, negative frequency-dependent selection plays a role in maintaining diversity at some loci, but in asexual organisms, this mechanism could provide a general explanation for persistent genetic diversity because it acts on the whole genome and not just on some polymorphisms within a genome. Using field manipulations, we show that negative frequency-dependent selection maintains clonal diversity in an asexual mite species, and we link predicted equilibrium clonal frequencies to average frequencies in space and time. Intense frequency-dependent selection is likely to be a general mechanism for persistent genetic diversity in asexual organisms.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research, Department of Genetics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia. aweeks@unimelb.edu.au
authors.forename: Andrew R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Weeks
authors.forename: Ary A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Hoffmann
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D002999:Clone Cells; D014644:Genetic Variation; D008925:Mites / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012100:Reproduction, Asexual / Q000235:genetics*; D012641:Selection, Genetic