Twenty-five microsatellite markers uniquely differentiated 35 avocado cultivars and two wild relatives. Average heterozygosity was high (60.7%), ranging from 32% in P. steyermarkii to 84% in Fuerte and Bacon. In a subset of 15 cultivars, heterozygosity averaged 63.5% for microsatellites, compared to 41.8% for restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs). A neighbor-joining tree, according to average shared allele distances, consisted of three clusters likely corresponding to the botanical races of avocado and intermediate clusters uniting genotypes of presumably racially hybrid origin. Several results were at odds with existing botanical assignments that are sometimes rendered difficult by incomplete pedigree information, the complexity of the hybrid status (multiple backcrossing), or both. For example, cv. Harvest clustered with the Guatemalan race cultivars, yet it is derived from the Guatemalan x Mexican hybrid cv. Gwen. Persea schiedeana grouped with cv. Bacon. The rootstock G875 emerged as the most divergent genotype in our data set. Considerable diversity was found particularly among accessions from Guatemala, including G810 (West Indian race), G6 (Mexican race), G755A (hybrid Guatemalan x P. schiedeana), and G875 (probably not P. americana). Low bootstrap support, even upon exclusion of (known) hybrid genotypes from the data matrix, suggests the existence of ancient hybridization or that the botanical races originated more recently than previously thought.

Alleles↗

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The Wilhelmine E. Key 1994 invitational Lecture. Plant genetic diversity and the struggle to measure selection.

The fundamental research program of population genetics has been to seek a quantitative assessment of the role of the various forces of evolution in shaping patterns of genetic variation. This goal has been pursued on both empirical and theoretical fronts. The introduction of biochemical and molecular techniques into population genetics more than 25 years ago revealed vast stores of genetic variation within populations. This level of genetic diversity is difficult to reconcile with balancing selection, and as a consequence, recent thinking has emphasized the role of mutation and genetic random drift as the primary determinants of genetic diversity. The resulting neutral theory of molecular evolution has dominated population genetic thought for more than 20 years. Nonadaptive theories have also emphasized the role of deleterious mutations in driving evolutionary change. New insights into the relative importance of selection and genetic random drift can now be obtained from samples of DNA sequences of genes drawn from within species. The elaboration of coalescence theory, together with the accumulation of data on gene genealogies, permits an integration over relatively long periods of evolutionary time. The ability to integrate over long periods of evolutionary time permits the detection of small selection intensities and it reveals some information about the mode of selection. When the genealogy is consistent with a neutral process, the effective population size can be estimated, as can the age of the coalescent, thus providing new empirical approaches to the estimation of these important parameters. Applications of these approaches in plant population genetics are still in their infancy, but they have already provided new insights into effective population sizes and they are beginning to illustrate how selection for domestication has affected plant genomes.

Chromosome Mapping↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Selection and mutation within and among full-sib lines.

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Alleles↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The genetics of glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase in Drosophila melanogaster.

A survey of 29 laboratory populations of Drosophila melanogaster for glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT) variation revealed that the Got-1 locus was polymorphic in three stocks recently collected from nature. The Got-1 locus was fixed for the same allozyme in the remaining 26 laboratory populations. Testcross matings to multiply marked stocks established that Got-1 is located at 4.8 centimorgans on chromosome 2.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Dynamics of correlated genetic systems. VI. Variation in recombination rates in experimental populations of Drosophila melanogaster.

Recombination fractions among four chromosome 3 enzyme loci were measured over a 20 generation period in experimental populations of Drosophila melanogaster. The experimental populations were initiated with complete pairwise linkage disequilibria among the marker loci, thereby providing an initial structure favorable to selection for recombination modification. The recombination data show no evidence of directional changes in recombination rates among the marker loci, although variation in estimates, both between families within generations and between generations was large. These materials also yielded much lower estimates for recombination fractions for the centromeric region of the third chromosome than previously reported. Taken in total, the experimental results show no evidence for recombination modification, although the results do indicate ample genetic variance for recombination rates.

Animals↗