Mendelian Transmission Ratio Distortion (TRD) and Factors Determining the Low Frequency of the t-Haplotypes in Wild Populations of the House Mouse Mus musculus of Russia and the Neighboring Countries of Eurasia

Abstract

The results of analysis of the frequencies of t-alleles and heterozygous +/t individuals of house mice of different subspecies (musculus, bactrianus, tataricus, wagneri, and gansuensis) are presented for the natural populations inhabiting eight cities and five regions of Russia and adjacent countries of Eastern Europe and Asia. It is shown that the frequencies of t-alleles are 0.18 ± 0.03 in small samples (1–30 individuals) and 0.09 ± 0.06 in medium-sized samples (31–60 individuals). The factors that reduce the frequencies of t-alleles in natural populations and the mechanisms that prevent invasion and fixation of t-mutant alleles in the Mus musculus genome are discussed.