Nucleotide Polymorphism and Linkage Disequilibrium in Wild Populations of the Partial Selfer Caenorhabditis Elegans

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ABSTRACT

An understanding of the relative contributions of different evolutionary forces on an organism's genome requires an accurate description of the patterns of genetic variation within and between natural populations. To this end, I report a survey of nucleotide polymorphism in six loci from 118 strains of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. These strains derive from wild populations of several regions within France, Germany, and new localities in Scotland, in addition to stock center isolates. Overall levels of silent-site diversity are low within and between populations of this self-fertile species, averaging 0.2% in European samples and 0.3% worldwide. Population …