The multiple-locus symmetric fertility model (Q1823182)

A multiple-locus fertility selection model is considered, i.e. fitness is not equivalent to survival from zygote to sexual maturity but rather depends on pairs of mating individuals. Moreover, fitness of matings is assumed to depend only on the genotypic distinction between homozygote and heterozygote at each locus in the two individuals. This assumption leads to the symmetric fertility model which is a generalization of the well-known symmetric viability model studied in a series of papers by the author and others. The model assumes n autosomal loci each with two alleles, and comprises the following major components: (1) \(2^{n+1}\) genotypes AB consisting of gametes A and B, where each gamete is considered as a subset of \(N=\{1,2,...,n\}\), (2) a recombination distribution on S(N), the set of all subsets of N, characterizing the segregation of gametes, and (3) fertility parameters F(A,B;C,D) describing the fertility of the mating AB\(\times CD\). The case of symmetric fertility selection is defined by \(F(A,B;C,D)=f(A*B,C*D)\), where * denotes the symmetric difference operation for sets. Under the assumption of discrete nonoverlapping generations and random mating the recurrence equations relating genotypic frequencies in two successive generations are derived. Next a linear transformation is applied to the genotypic frequencies such that conservative manifolds of the original model correspond to hyperplanes spanned by coordinate axes in the transformed system. It is shown that a central equilibrium with genotypic frequencies in Hardy-Weinberg proportions and gametic frequencies in Robbins proportions always exists. If this equilibrium is stable in the case of no recombination, then it is stable for any recombination distribution. Close to the central point the dynamics of the symmetric fertility model is indistinguishable from the dynamics of the symmetric viability model. In contrast to viability selection, however, the multiple-locus symmetric fertility model allows simultaneous stability of the central equilibrium and marginal equilibria with only one locus fixed.