Genetic Drift and Gnatural Selection

Understanding how the various evolutionary forces of mutation, selection, and drift collectively shape the genetic composition of populations is a key goal of population genetics research. One classic method of study has been to compare different inheritance systems, and particularly popular has been the within genome comparison of autosomes and sex chromosomes. However, inferences from such comparisons can be limited by the fact that multiple factors differ between sex chromosomes and autosomes (e.g. ploidy and transmission genetics). Here, we study a group of black winged fungus gnats with a peculiar type of reproduction “digenic PGE” in which X and autosomes are inherited equally from females and males, but the X remains expressed in a haploid state in males compared to a diploid state in females. I first explain what is known about their inheritance system, and then show how we can extend classic theory to the various inheritance systems that coexists within the fungus gnats.