title: Selective sweeps for recessive alleles and for other modes of dominance.
abstract: A selective sweep describes the reduction of linked genetic variation due to strong positive selection. If s is the fitness advantage of a homozygote for the beneficial allele and h its dominance coefficient, it is usually assumed that h=1/2, i.e. the beneficial allele is co-dominant. We complement existing theory for selective sweeps by assuming that h is any value in [0, 1]. We show that genetic diversity patterns under selective sweeps with strength s and dominance 0 < h < 1 are similar to co-dominant sweeps with selection strength 2hs. Moreover, we focus on the case h=0 of a completely recessive beneficial allele. We find that the length of the sweep, i.e. the time from occurrence until fixation of the beneficial allele, is of the order of √(N/s) generations, if N is the population size. Simulations as well as our results show that genetic diversity patterns in the recessive case h=0 greatly differ from all other cases.
authors.affiliation: University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. greg.ewing@univie.ac.at
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ewing
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hermisson
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pfaffelhuber
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rudolf
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005808:Genes, Recessive; D014644:Genetic Variation; D008957:Models, Genetic; D012641:Selection, Genetic