Estimating relative fitness in asexually reproducing plant pathogen populations

Summary A mathematical model is presented and analysed to find the conditions under which changes in gene frequencies can be used in asexually reproducing populations for estimating fitness of single genes, for example, for estimating the fitnesses of unnecessary virulence genes relative to their corresponding avirulence genes. It is concluded that the underlying distribution of relative fitness of clones (genotypes) has to be unimodal and that many populations consisting of a mixture of distinguishable clones then provide the best experimental data for estimating relative fitness of single genes. An improved statistical test procedure, i.e. generalized logistic regression, is suggested for analysing changes in gene frequencies in population experiments with a mixture of distinguishable clones. A population study of Erysiphe graminis f.sp. hordei (Klug-Andersen 1980) provides data to illustrate the procedure in the case where the population consists of a large number of genotypes. A bimodal distribution of genotypes possessing the virulence gene is indicated here.