Zusammenfassung
Predictions about the effect of natural selection on patterns of linked neutral variation are largely based on models
involving the rapid fixation of unconditionally beneficial mutations. However, when phenotypes adapt to a new optimum trait value,
the strength of selection on individual mutations decreases as the population adapts. Here, I use explicit forward simulations of a single
trait with additive-effect mutations adapting to an “optimum shift.” Detectable “hitchhiking” patterns are only apparent if (i) the
optimum shifts are large with respect to equilibrium variation for the trait, (ii) mutation rates to large-effect mutations are low, and (iii)
large-effect mutations rapidly increase in frequency and eventually reach fixation, which typically occurs after the population reaches
the new optimum. For the parameters simulated here, partial sweeps do not appreciably affect patterns of linked variation, even when
the mutations are strongly selected. The contribution of new mutations vs. standing variation to fixation depends on the mutation rate
affecting trait values. Given the fixation of a strongly selected variant, patterns of hitchhiking are similar on average for the two classes
of sweeps because sweeps from standing variation involving large-effect mutations are rare when the optimum shifts. The distribution
of effect sizes of new mutations has little effect on the time to reach the new optimum, but reducing the mutational variance increases
the magnitude of hitchhiking patterns. In general, populations reach the new optimum prior to the completion of any sweeps, and the
times to fixation are longer for this model than for standard models of directional selection. The long fixation times are due to a
combination of declining selection pressures during adaptation and the possibility of interference among weakly selected sites for traits
with high mutation rates.
Nutzer