Abstract

Balanced lethal systems pose an evolutionary enigma. In a balanced lethal system, all adult individuals consistently possess two distinct forms of a particular chromosome, both of which are essential to survival. Yet, according to the rules of Mendelian inheritance, every generation, 50% of the offspring obtain the same chromosome form twice; those individuals die during embryonic development. In an ERC Starting Grant-funded research program, we aim to determine how such an incredibly wasteful balanced lethal system could possibly evolve