Bates, Sadé;
(2023)
Fertility and genomic consequences of meiotic drive in Teleopsis dalmanni.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
Meiotic drivers distort the segregation of alleles during meiosis to bias transmission in their favour. In males, this occurs through the degradation of non-carrier sperm. Meiotic drive is associated with negative fitness effects both in male and female carriers, and changes in the host genome as drive variants are found in chromosomal inversions. In this thesis, I explore the themes of fertility costs incurred by carrying a driving X chromosome and its maintenance in the population, using Teleopsis dalmanni as a model system. I first examine the effects of meiotic drive on sperm competition; an important component of post-copulatory selection in this species, where sperm from different males are stored in the female reproductive tract and compete to fertilise eggs. I use double-mating trials – in which a female is mated with one drive and one non-drive male – to determine the competitive ability of drive males under low competition. Next, I mate females multiply to a competitor male, either drive or non-drive, and assess the fertility success of a male of the alternative genotype. This measures drive male offensive and defensive capabilities under stronger competition, i.e., when the female's storage organs contain more rival sperm. Next, I turn to investigate the effects of drive on components of female fertility. I determine the age at sexual maturity and fecundity for non-carrier, heterozygous (one driving X chromosome) and homozygous (two driving X chromosomes) females. I examine how these effects might constrain the population frequency of drive. Finally, I develop a method to improve the annotation of the T. dalmanni genome. Following an improved genome assembly for this species, annotation is needed to link genome sequences to the biology of drive. The resulting annotation set will aid in future studies of the genomic differences between carrier and non-carrier flies.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Fertility and genomic consequences of meiotic drive in Teleopsis dalmanni |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2023. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10177153 |
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