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  • V — Gestion Dynamique des Ressources Génétiques Dynamic Management of Genetic Resources
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Evolution of genetic diversity in metapopulations: Arabidopsis thaliana as an experimental model

Évolution de la diversité génétique en métapopulation: Arabidopsis thaliana comme modèle expérimental

Genetics Selection Evolution volume 33, Article number: S399 (2001) Cite this article

Abstract

Two experiments were set up to investigate how to maintain or create genetic diversity in artificial or managed populations of plants. Using Arabidopsis thaliana, we established 18 metapopulations of 20 populations each, all with the same initial genetic composition. We tested the effects of the population size, the artificial selection regime and the extinction/recolonisation regime. We report the results of the first four generations of evolution for a trait under selection (precocity) and for allozyme diversity. As expected, overall diversity decreased in each metapopulation, and differentiation among populations increased. As expected, the differentiation was weaker for larger population sizes and in the treatment with extinction and recolonisation with no bottleneck. Artificial selection was effective because the life cycle duration was much reduced. However, most of the reduction occurred during the first generation. We observed an increase of one allele at the LAP-2 locus in all metapopulations, breaching neutral assumptions for this locus. Finally, the selection regime made little difference for small population sizes, whereas large metapopulations were more differentiated when artificial selection was heterogeneous among populations. Altogether, our results agree with theoretical expectations, and provide some new results, which could not have been anticipated. In particular, the overall decrease in genetic diversity was very large (of the order of 20% in 4 generations) even for metapopulations of 2000 individuals.

Résumé

Deux expérimentations, visant à étudier comment maintenir ou créer de la diversité dans les populations artificielles ou gérées de plantes, ont été menées en utilisant Arabidopsis thaliana comme espèce modèle. Nous avons créé 18 métapopulations de 20 populations de même composition initiale. Nous avons testé les effets de la taille des populations, du régime de sélection et du régime d’extinction/recolonisation. Les résultats sur l’évolution du caractère sélectionné (durée du cycle de vie) et sur la diversité enzymatique sont présentés pour les quatre premières générations. Conformément aux attendus théoriques, la diversité a globalement diminué dans les métapopulations et les populations se sont différenciées. La différenciation est plus faible pour les grandes populations et dans le traitement avec extinctions et recolonisations sur une base génétique large. La sélection artificielle a réduit la durée du cycle des plantes. Cette réduction a essentiellement eu lieu pendant la première génération. Nous avons observé une augmentation d’un des allèles au locus LAP-2 dans toutes les métapopulations, en contradiction avec la neutralité présupposée de ce locus. Enfin, la sélection a eu peu d’effet dans les petites populations alors que les grandes populations sont plus différenciées pour les allozymes quand la sélection est hétérogène entre populations. Globalement, nos résultats sont plutôt en accord avec les prédictions théoriques; certains résultats sont néanmoins inattendus. En particulier, la perte de diversité globale a été très importante (de l’ordre de 20 % en quatre générations), même dans les métapopulations de 2000 individus.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire écologie, systématique et évolution, Université Paris-XI/Cnrs UPRES-A 8079, bâtiment 362, 91405, Orsay Cedex, France

    Claire Lavigne, Madeleine Lefranc & Emmanuelle Porcher

  2. Laboratoire malherbologie et agronomie, Institut national de la recherche agronomique, BP 86510, 21065, Dijon Cedex, France

    Xavier Reboud & Fabrice Roux

  3. Institut des sciences de l’évolution, Université Montpellier 2, Place Eugène Bataillon, 34095, Montpellier Cedex 05, France

    Isabelle Olivieri

  4. Laboratoire génome, populations, interactions, Université de Montpellier II, case courrier 063, bâtiment 13, 34095, Montpellier Cedex 05, France

    Bernard Godelle

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  1. Claire Lavigne
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  2. Xavier Reboud
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  3. Madeleine Lefranc
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  4. Emmanuelle Porcher
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  5. Fabrice Roux
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  6. Isabelle Olivieri
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  7. Bernard Godelle
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Correspondence to Claire Lavigne.

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Lavigne, C., Reboud, X., Lefranc, M. et al. Evolution of genetic diversity in metapopulations: Arabidopsis thaliana as an experimental model. Genet Sel Evol 33 (Suppl 1), S399 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03500892

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Genetics Selection Evolution

ISSN: 1297-9686