I'm working with a small rodent species with high interpopulational chromosomal variation mostly due to pericentric inversions in two chromosomal pairs (same diploid number but different numbers of autosomal arms). Individuals in a population can be either heterozygotes (i.e. individuals with heteromorphic pairs) or homozygotes for the rearrangements. The question is, could I estimate heterozigosity levels based on this type of data to test if the population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?
Thales Freitas Valéria Fagundes Maria José de J. Silva Roberta Paresque
Do pericentric inversions have any phenotypic influences?.. That is to say, is not a fitness advantage supposed? I know nothing about evolution in rodents, however, if these inversions participate in local adaptation (that is where this interpopulational variation may come from), HWE might be violated. Anyway, I think these inversions may be considered as biallelic loci and therefore used for heterozigosity measurements. Why not?
Thanks Alexander for the answer. Exactly. Given that inversion polymorphisms have a Mendelian inheritance, I also don't see why not to compute heterozygosity and test if the polymorphisms are at HWE. If there were any violation of random mating regarding these inversions I would expect deviations from the equilibrium. One objection is that heterozygosity estimates from these inversions would not reflect gene-level heterozygosity, although they encompass many genes in a single chromatid.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Zoology
- Mammalogy
- Suckling Animals
- Eutheria
- Rodentia