Biased sex‐ratio and sex‐biased heterozygote disadvantage affect the maintenance of a genetic polymorphism and the properties of hybrid zones

Abstract

The evolution of biodiversity is a major issue of modern biology, and it is becoming increasingly topical as the ongoing erosion of diversity puts serious threats on human well-being. An elementary mechanism that allows maintaining diversity is the interplay between dispersal and heterozygote selective disadvantage, which can lead to self-sustainable spatial genetic structures and is central to the stability of hybrid zones. Theoretical studies supporting the importance of this mechanism assume a balanced sex-ratio and a heterozygote disadvantage equally affecting both sexes, despite the multiplicity of empirical evidence that (i) adult sex-ratio is usually biased towards either male or female and that (ii) heterozygote disadvantage often affects a single sex. We expanded the existing theory by weighting the strength of selection against heterozygote according to the biased in sex-ratio and in heterozygote disadvantage. The range of conditions allowing for the maintenance of polymorphism can then either double or vanish. We discuss the implications of such finding for birds, mammals and insects diversity. Finally, we provide simple analytical predictions about the effect of those biased on the width and speed of hybrid zones and on the time for the spread of beneficial mutations through such zones.