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R C Lewontin

Publications and source records attributed to R C Lewontin.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Distinguishing the forces controlling genetic variation at the Xdh locus in Drosophila pseudoobscura.

Fifty-eight isochromosomal lines sampled from two natural populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura in California and one from Bogota, Colombia, were examined using four-cutter restriction mapping. A 4.6-kb region of the xanthine dehydrogenase locus was probed and 66 of 135 restriction sites scored were polymorphic. This predicts that on average every 12th bp would be polymorphic in this region for the genes surveyed if polymorphism occurred randomly along the coding region. In addition, there were 12 insertion/deletion polymorphisms. Forty-nine distinct haplotypes were recognized in the 58 lines examined. The most common haplotype obtained a frequency of only 5%. Measures of base pair heterozygosity (0.0097) and linkage disequilibrium lead to a predicted population size in the range of 1.2-2.4 X 10(6) for the species. High levels of recombination (including gene conversion) can be inferred from the presence of all four gametic types in the data set.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Inferring the number of evolutionary events from DNA coding sequence differences.

The estimation of the amount of evolutionary divergence that has taken place between two DNA coding sequences depends strongly on the degree of constraint on amino acid replacements. If amino acid replacements are relatively unconstrained, the individual nucleotide is the appropriate unit of analysis and the method of Tajima and Nei can be used. If amino acid replacements are constrained, however, this method is shown to be inapplicable. For sequences with strong amino acid constraints, a method is outlined analogous to the Tajima and Nei method using codons as the unit of analysis. Only synonymous substitutions are used. Codon usage data can be employed to estimate the necessary parameters of the calculation, or a priori models of substitution may be employed. Sequences with significant but intermediate constraints on amino acid replacements are, in principle, unanalyzable.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

A general asymptotic property of two-locus selection models.

It is shown that any two-locus, two-allele model of selection with constant fitnesses has at least one polymorphic equilibrium for which the linkage association measure, D, is arbitrarily close to zero for large enough recombination, R. As R----+/- infinity, D----0 in such a way that the product l = RD----a non-zero finite constant. There may be 1, 3, or 5 distinct asymptotic equilibria, depending upon fitness parameters.

Alleles↗
PubMed1988

On measures of gametic disequilibrium.

Various measures have been proposed for characterizing the statistical association that arises between alleles at different loci. Hedrick has compared these measures with the standardized measure D' proposed by Lewontin on the grounds that this latter measure is independent of allele frequency. Although D' has the same range for all allelic frequencies, in fact, D' is not "independent" of allele frequency, and no measure with that general property is possible for the multilocus association problem. The insolubility of this problem arises from the ill-defined nature of general "association."

Alleles↗
PubMed1987

Sequence of the structural gene for xanthine dehydrogenase (rosy locus) in Drosophila melanogaster.

We determined the nucleotide sequence of a 4.6-kb EcoRI fragment containing 70% of the rosy locus. In combination with information on the 5' sequence, the gene has been sequenced in entirety. rosy cDNAs have been isolated and intron/exon boundaries have been determined. We find an open reading frame which spans four exons and would encode a protein of 1335 amino acids. The molecular weight of the encoded protein (xanthine dehydrogenase), based on the amino acid translation, is 146,898 daltons which agrees well with earlier biophysical estimates. Characteristics of the protein are discussed.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1985

Nearly identical allelic distributions of xanthine dehydrogenase in two populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura.

In a previous study, Keith (1983) showed by sequential gel electrophoresis of the esterase-5 protein in Drosophila pseudoobscura that a highly polymorphic locus with many alleles can have very similar frequency distributions in populations separated by 500 km. The present work studies another highly polymorphic locus, xanthine dehydrogenase, in the same California population samples, using the same technique to distinguish allelic classes. Twelve electromorphs were found in one population and 15 in the other. Both populations shared a single very frequent (approximately 60%) allele, as well as five other alleles in low but similar frequencies. In addition, each population had an array of unique alleles present only once in one population sample but absent in the other. A statistical test against the stationary distribution for neutral alleles shows that, if the populations are at equilibrium, then purifying selection is operating on xanthine dehydrogenase. The extremely close similarity in frequency distributions of the alleles between populations for both the xanthine dehydrogenase and esterase-5 loci, despite differences in allele frequency distribution between loci, strongly emphasizes the importance of migration in influencing genic diversity in these populations.

Alleles↗
PubMed1981

Gene flow and the geographical distribution of a molecular polymorphism in Drosophila pseudoobscura.

This paper discusses the relation between the geographical distribution of an enzyme polymorphism and population structure in Drosophila pseudoobscura. California populations of this species living in very different montane and lowland habitats separated by several kilometers are similar to each other in the frequency of an esterase allele. Previous estimates suggest that gene flow is too limited to account for this homogeneity of genetic structure, so that it must reflect some balancing force of natural selection. We slow, however, that dispersal over unfavorable habitats is much greater than earlier supposed. Isolated populations of D. pseudoobscura separated by 15 km from other populations are subject to large amounts of immigration. This is shown by changes in the seasonal abundance of this species and in the annual pattern of lethal alleles in such populations. The genetic structure of an experimentally perturbed isolated population in an oasis returned to normal within a single year, suggesting that such populations are ephemeral and that the oasis is subject to annual recolonization by distant migrants. Direct assessment of marked flies shows that they can move at least 10 10 km in 24 hours over a desert. Such extensive gene flow may help explain the distribution of the esterase allele, and is relevant to the high level of molecular polymorphism and its general lack of geographic differentiation throughout the range of D. pseudoobscura.

Alleles↗
PubMed1980

Sociobiology: another biological determinism.

Sociobiology is a form of biological determinism which argues that human social organization is constrained by genes that have been selected in evolution. In particular, it regards male dominance, hierarchical society, entrepreneurial economic activity, territoriality, and aggression as a consequences of human genes. It is shown that sociobiological theory is carefully constructed to make it impossible to test, that it makes a number of fundamental errors in attempting to describe "human nature," that there is no evidence for inheritance of human social traits, and that the evolutionary arguments used are merely fanciful, adaptive stories.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: a critique of the adaptationist programme.

An adaptationist programme has dominated evolutionary thought in England and the United States during the past 40 years. It is based on faith in the power of natural selection as an optimizing agent. It proceeds by breaking an oragnism into unitary 'traits' and proposing an adaptive story for each considered separately. Trade-offs among competing selective demands exert the only brake upon perfection; non-optimality is thereby rendered as a result of adaptation as well. We criticize this approach and attempt to reassert a competing notion (long popular in continental Europe) that organisms must be analysed as integrated wholes, with Baupläne so constrained by phyletic heritage, pathways of development and general architecture that the constraints themselves become more interesting and more important in delimiting pathways of change than the selective force that may mediate change when it occurs. We fault the adaptationist programme for its failure to distinguish current utility from reasons for origin (male tyrannosaurs may have used their diminutive front legs to titillate female partners, but this will not explain why they got so small); for its unwillingness to consider alternatives to adaptive stories; for its reliance upon plausibility alone as a criterion for accepting speculative tales; and for its failure to consider adequately such competing themes as random fixation of alleles, production of non-adaptive structures by developmental correlation with selected features (allometry, pleiotropy, material compensation, mechanically forced correlation), the separability of adaptation and selection, multiple adaptive peaks, and current utility as an epiphenomenon of non-adaptive structures. We support Darwin's own pluralistic approach to identifying the agents of evolutionary change.

Adaptation, Biological↗
PubMed1979

The sensitivity of gel electrophoresis as a detector of genetic variation.

Three experiments based on an idea of YOUDERIAN have been performed to determine the proportions and kinds of amino acid substitutions that are detected by gel electrophoresis when applied to surveys of protein variation in populations. The experiments involved applying the sequential method of electrophoresis under several conditions of pH and gel concentration to a large sample of human hemoglobins with known amino acid substitutions. In the first experiment, a random sample of 20 different hemoglobin variants was studied, and these were separated into 17 distinct electrophoretic classes by three sequential gel conditions, thus giving a detectability of 85%. A single pass under standard conditions detected eight classes. The second experiment compared groups of substitutions that were chemically identical, but in different positions in the alpha and beta chains, while the third experiment compared pairs of substitutions that were charge equivalent, but chemically different at the same chain position. The sequential method distinguished 90% of all chemically identical substitutions when they were at different chain locations, and four out of five charge equivalent but chemically different substitutions at the same site. Examination of the location of each substitution in the three-dimensional structure of hemoglobins showed that interior substitutions usually are less different from Hb A than are surface substitutions and that local interactions with chain and spatial neighbors are sufficient to distinguish substitutions in very similar positions on the outside of the molecule. The "charge ladder" model of electrophoretic classes is clearly incorrect, and it appears that sequential gel electrophoresis as practiced in our Drosophila surveys has detected a substantial fraction of amino acid substitutions if hemoglobin is regarded as a model. This estimate may be modified as other molecules beside hemoglobin are subjected to similar calibration experiments.

Alleles↗
PubMed1978

Adaptation.

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Adaptation, Biological↗
PubMed1978

Extent of genetic variation at a highly polymorphic esterase locus in Drosophila pseudoobscura.

The esterase-5 locus of Drosophila pseudoobscura has been screened for variation by using a wide variety of electrophoretic conditions and by testing heat sensitivity. Among 50 isogenic lines from 17 populations, 21 genetic variants were found at the locus, 18 by electrophoresis and 3 by heat denaturation. Including alleles previously known, there are a total of 30 alleles at this locus in natural populations. This represents a doubling of the previous estimates of polymorphism at this locus. The study confirms that, in contrast to monomorphic loci, loci judged polymorphic under one detection procedure show large increases in polymorphism when examined extensively.

Animals↗
PubMed1976

Genetic heterogeneity within electrophoretic "alleles" of xanthine dehydrogenase in Drosophila pseudoobscura.

An experimental plan for an exhaustive determination of genic variation at structural gene loci is presented. In the initial steps of this program, 146 isochromosomal lines from 12 geographic populations of D. pseudoobscura were examined for allelic variation of xanthine dehydrogenase by the serial use of 4 different electrophoretic conditions and a head stability test. The 5 criteria revealed a total of 37 allelic classes out of the 146 genomes examined where only 6 had been previously revealed by the usual method of gel electrophoresis. This immense increase in genic variation also showed previously unsuspected population differences between the main part of the species distribution and the isolated population of Bogotá population. The average heterozygosity at the Xdh locus is at least 72% in natural populations. This result, together with the very large number of alleles segregating and the pattern of allelic frequencies, has implications for theories of genetic polymorphism which are discussed.

Alleles↗