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Review
. 2023 Dec;36(12):1761-1782.
doi: 10.1111/jeb.14242. Epub 2023 Nov 8.

How chromosomal inversions reorient the evolutionary process

Emma L Berdan  1   2 , Nicholas H Barton  3 , Roger Butlin  2   4 , Brian Charlesworth  5 , Rui Faria  6   7 , Inês Fragata  8 , Kimberly J Gilbert  9 , Paul Jay  10 , Martin Kapun  11   12 , Katie E Lotterhos  13 , Claire Mérot  14 , Esra Durmaz Mitchell  9   15 , Marta Pascual  16 , Catherine L Peichel  17 , Marina Rafajlović  2   18 , Anja M Westram  3   19 , Stephen W Schaeffer  20 , Kerstin Johannesson  18   21 , Thomas Flatt  9
Affiliations
Free article
Review

How chromosomal inversions reorient the evolutionary process

Emma L Berdan et al. J Evol Biol. 2023 Dec.
Free article

Abstract

Inversions are structural mutations that reverse the sequence of a chromosome segment and reduce the effective rate of recombination in the heterozygous state. They play a major role in adaptation, as well as in other evolutionary processes such as speciation. Although inversions have been studied since the 1920s, they remain difficult to investigate because the reduced recombination conferred by them strengthens the effects of drift and hitchhiking, which in turn can obscure signatures of selection. Nonetheless, numerous inversions have been found to be under selection. Given recent advances in population genetic theory and empirical study, here we review how different mechanisms of selection affect the evolution of inversions. A key difference between inversions and other mutations, such as single nucleotide variants, is that the fitness of an inversion may be affected by a larger number of frequently interacting processes. This considerably complicates the analysis of the causes underlying the evolution of inversions. We discuss the extent to which these mechanisms can be disentangled, and by which approach.

Keywords: adaptation; balanced polymorphisms; chromosomal rearrangements; inversions; linkage; neutrality; recombination; selection.

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References

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