Evolution and intraspecific exploitative competition. II. A two-locus model for additive gene effects (Q796467)

This work studies the evolution of a quantitative character involved in intraspecific exploitative competition. It continues earlier work of the authors and extends the analysis to the case of two loci. These loci influence a character which is directly related to the exploitation of a limiting resource according to the model given in part I of this paper, ibid. 18, 297-313 (1980; Zbl 0468.92013)]. For each genotype a Gaussian utilization function is defined with mean depending on the genotype (and being composed by additive contributions of each of the four alleles in the genotype) and standard deviation equal among genotypes. The change in population size and genetic composition is described by a discrete time version of the Lotka-Volterra equations, where the parameters of growth and intraspecific competition are determined from the parameters of the utilization functions. The evolution of the population is analysed for a variety of different situations by theoretical considerations as well as numerical methods. In the case of small allele contributions the basic result is that for close linkage a totally polymorphic globally stable equilibrium exists where the linkage equilibrium between the two loci is high.