Evaluating Gene Flow Using Selected Markers: A Case Study

The extent to which an organism is locally adapted in an environmental pocket depends on the selection intensities inside and outside the pocket, on migration, and on the size of the pocket. When two or more loci are involved in this local adaptation, measuring their frequency gradients and their linkage disequilbria allows one to disentangle the forces—migration and selection—acting on the system. We apply this method to the case of a local adaptation to organophosphate insecticides in the mosquito Culex pipiens pipiens in southern France. The study of two different resistance loci allowed us to estimate with support limits gene flow as well as selection pressure on insecticide resistance and the fitness costs associated with each locus. These estimates permit us to pinpoint the conditions for the maintenance of this pocket of adaptation as well as the effect of the interaction between the two resistance loci.