9752945 Durand Ultraselfish gene complexes (USGC's), which have been observed in several species, are chromosomal entities that are both aggressive and deleterious. They are transmitted to offspring more often than their genetic counterparts, in violation of Mendel's laws. Yet, they are harmful to the organism that carries them in that they cause sterility and often carry recessive lethal mutations. The evolution of USGC's is of interest as an example of competitive evolution between genetic elements in a single organism. The long term objective of this work by Marie Dannie Durand is to understand how USGC's evolve in populations. The goal of the current project is to demonstrate that a combination of simulation and analytic methods can be an effective research tool in this area by developing a combined model of a USGC that occurs in mice. Computer simulations and Markov models will be used to study the behavior of ultraselfish genes in small populations where stochastic variations in USGC frequency have a big impact on the ability of such elements to survive. Computer simulations of mutations in USGC's will show how different aggressive variants compete under selective pressure. The expected results of the proposed work include new tools for studying the evolution and population dynamics of USGC's, hypotheses concerning the basic population genetic mechanisms that mediate their evolution and characterization of the population conditions under which USGC's can arise and persist. This POWRE award permits Dr. Durand to expand her research program by applying her computational skills to model a significant question in evolutionary biology. This work should increase her prominence in an interdisciplinary area of the biological sciences, an area in which women are significantly underrepresented.
