{"entity": "researcher", "timestamp": "2026-08-22T06:56:32.825Z", "family": "Forstmeier", "given": "Wolfgang", "initials": "W", "orcid": "0000-0002-5984-8925", "affiliations": ["Department of Behavioural Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Eberhard-Gwinner-Stra\u00dfe, 82319, Seewiesen, Germany. forstmeier@orn.mpg.de."], "links": {"self": {"href": "https://publications-affiliated.scilifelab.se/researcher/ecb710f7c6a34435b03de70f2bddfc38.json"}, "display": {"href": "https://publications-affiliated.scilifelab.se/researcher/ecb710f7c6a34435b03de70f2bddfc38"}}, "publications": [{"entity": "publication", "iuid": "b7b6e6fe4a7943daa36f1a52c4d8d655", "links": {"self": {"href": "https://publications-affiliated.scilifelab.se/publication/b7b6e6fe4a7943daa36f1a52c4d8d655.json"}, "display": {"href": "https://publications-affiliated.scilifelab.se/publication/b7b6e6fe4a7943daa36f1a52c4d8d655"}}, "title": "Weak antagonistic fitness effects can maintain an inversion polymorphism.", "authors": [{"family": "Pei", "given": "Yifan", "initials": "Y", "orcid": "0000-0002-2411-4454", "researcher": {"href": "https://publications-affiliated.scilifelab.se/researcher/f89c9be70df04b05bbe8bc30945c854f.json"}}, {"family": "Forstmeier", "given": "Wolfgang", "initials": "W", "orcid": "0000-0002-5984-8925", "researcher": {"href": "https://publications-affiliated.scilifelab.se/researcher/ecb710f7c6a34435b03de70f2bddfc38.json"}}, {"family": "Knief", "given": "Ulrich", "initials": "U", "orcid": "0000-0001-6959-3033", "researcher": {"href": "https://publications-affiliated.scilifelab.se/researcher/41faddaa4cc1445e854ba4a62298507d.json"}}, {"family": "Kempenaers", "given": "Bart", "initials": "B", "orcid": "0000-0002-7505-5458", "researcher": {"href": "https://publications-affiliated.scilifelab.se/researcher/6771e71dc2114c6a98eeae371c75fe59.json"}}], "type": "journal article", "published": "2023-07-00", "journal": {"title": "Mol. Ecol.", "issn": "1365-294X", "volume": "32", "issue": "13", "pages": "3575-3585", "issn-l": "0962-1083"}, "abstract": "The study of chromosomal inversion polymorphisms has received much recent attention, particularly in cases where inversions have drastic effects on phenotypes and fitness (e.g. lethality of homozygotes). Less attention has been paid to the question of the maintenance of inversion polymorphisms that show only weak effects. Here, we study the maintenance of such an inversion polymorphism that links 250 genes on chromosome Tgu11 in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). Based on data from over 6000 captive birds, we estimated the effects of this inversion on a wide range of fitness-related traits. We found that, compared with the ancestral allele A, the inverted allele D had small additive beneficial effects on male siring success and on female fecundity. These fitness-enhancing effects may explain the initial spread of the derived D allele (allele frequency 53%). However, individuals that were homozygous for D had a slightly lower survival rate, which may explain why the D allele has not spread to fixation. We used individual-based simulations to examine how an inversion polymorphism with such antagonistic fitness effects behaves over time. Our results indicate that polymorphisms become stabilized at an intermediate allele frequency if the inversion links an additively beneficial allele of small effect size to a recessive weakly deleterious mutation, overall resulting in weak net heterosis. Importantly, this conclusion remains valid over a wide range of selection coefficients against the homozygous DD (up to lethality), suggesting that the conditions needed to maintain the polymorphism may frequently be met. However, the simulations also suggest that in our zebra finch populations, the estimated recessive deleterious effect of the D allele (on survival in captivity) is not quite large enough to prevent fixation of the D allele in the long run. Estimates of fitness effects from free-living populations are needed to validate these results.", "doi": "10.1111/mec.16963", "pmid": "37118648", "labels": [], "xrefs": [], "notes": [], "created": "2026-08-21T12:20:55.675Z", "modified": "2026-08-21T12:20:55.758Z"}, {"entity": "publication", "iuid": "639f2c4c02d844ecbed258bfcbdaedfd", "links": {"self": {"href": "https://publications-affiliated.scilifelab.se/publication/639f2c4c02d844ecbed258bfcbdaedfd.json"}, "display": {"href": "https://publications-affiliated.scilifelab.se/publication/639f2c4c02d844ecbed258bfcbdaedfd"}}, "title": "Mendelian nightmares: the germline-restricted chromosome of songbirds.", "authors": [{"family": "Borodin", "given": "Pavel", "initials": "P"}, {"family": "Chen", "given": "Augustin", "initials": "A", "orcid": "0000-0002-2016-3048", "researcher": {"href": "https://publications-affiliated.scilifelab.se/researcher/2ad4deb0f2d94f69823035ac763a427b.json"}}, {"family": "Forstmeier", "given": "Wolfgang", "initials": "W", "orcid": "0000-0002-5984-8925", "researcher": {"href": "https://publications-affiliated.scilifelab.se/researcher/ecb710f7c6a34435b03de70f2bddfc38.json"}}, {"family": "Fouch\u00e9", "given": "Simone", "initials": "S", "orcid": "0000-0003-0601-6073", "researcher": {"href": "https://publications-affiliated.scilifelab.se/researcher/736afd67cd5d47dea6c9021735fd1354.json"}}, {"family": "Malinovskaya", "given": "Lyubov", "initials": "L"}, {"family": "Pei", "given": "Yifan", "initials": "Y", "orcid": "0000-0002-2411-4454", "researcher": {"href": "https://publications-affiliated.scilifelab.se/researcher/f89c9be70df04b05bbe8bc30945c854f.json"}}, {"family": "Reifov\u00e1", "given": "Radka", "initials": "R", "orcid": "0000-0001-5852-5174", "researcher": {"href": "https://publications-affiliated.scilifelab.se/researcher/19c70fc264f24ae6b713a7be58620937.json"}}, {"family": "Ruiz-Ruano", "given": "Francisco J", "initials": "FJ", "orcid": "0000-0002-5391-301X", "researcher": {"href": "https://publications-affiliated.scilifelab.se/researcher/b6c9c69ad6644f77bfe61a99ec3e8fd0.json"}}, {"family": "Schlebusch", "given": "Stephen A", "initials": "SA", "orcid": "0000-0003-2355-2652", "researcher": {"href": "https://publications-affiliated.scilifelab.se/researcher/1ab2b0b88bb141ce9ff2e715dd4d8cae.json"}}, {"family": "Sotelo-Mu\u00f1oz", "given": "Manuelita", "initials": "M", "orcid": "0000-0002-1654-7292", "researcher": {"href": "https://publications-affiliated.scilifelab.se/researcher/f81a23ad98eb4ec8ab7edb7ad813f5ea.json"}}, {"family": "Torgasheva", "given": "Anna", "initials": "A", "orcid": "0000-0002-8933-8336", "researcher": {"href": "https://publications-affiliated.scilifelab.se/researcher/09eb57f1eddf4ca2947bd8de9b904f79.json"}}, {"family": "Vontzou", "given": "Niki", "initials": "N"}, {"family": "Suh", "given": "Alexander", "initials": "A", "orcid": "0000-0002-8979-9992", "researcher": {"href": "https://publications-affiliated.scilifelab.se/researcher/e1790a31477c4376957d8c328299db1c.json"}}], "type": "journal article", "published": "2022-09-00", "journal": {"title": "Chromosome Res.", "issn": "1573-6849", "volume": "30", "issue": "2-3", "pages": "255-272", "issn-l": "0967-3849"}, "abstract": "Germline-restricted chromosomes (GRCs) are accessory chromosomes that occur only in germ cells. They are eliminated from somatic cells through programmed DNA elimination during embryo development. GRCs have been observed in several unrelated animal taxa and show peculiar modes of non-Mendelian inheritance and within-individual elimination. Recent cytogenetic and phylogenomic evidence suggests that a GRC is present across the species-rich songbirds, but absent in non-passerine birds, implying that over half of all 10,500 bird species have extensive germline/soma genome differences. Here, we review recent insights gained from genomic, transcriptomic, and cytogenetic approaches with regard to the genetic content, phylogenetic distribution, and inheritance of the songbird GRC. While many questions remain unsolved in terms of GRC inheritance, elimination, and function, we discuss plausible scenarios and future directions for understanding this widespread form of programmed DNA elimination.", "doi": "10.1007/s10577-022-09688-3", "pmid": "35416568", "labels": [], "xrefs": [{"db": "pmc", "key": "PMC9508068"}, {"db": "pii", "key": "10.1007/s10577-022-09688-3"}], "notes": [], "created": "2026-08-21T11:07:46.574Z", "modified": "2026-08-21T11:07:46.962Z"}]}