TITLE:
Epistasis in Predator-Prey Relationships
AUTHORS:
Iuliia Inozemtseva, James Braselton
KEYWORDS:
Epistasis, Predator-Prey Equations, Logistic Equation, Hardy-Weinberg Equation
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Applied Sciences,
Vol.4 No.9,
August
14,
2014
ABSTRACT: Epistasis is the interaction between two or more genes to control a single phenotype. We model epistasis of the prey in a two-locus two-allele problem in a basic predator-prey relationship. The resulting model allows us to examine both population sizes as well as genotypic and phenotypic frequencies. In the context of several numerical examples, we show that if epistasis results in an undesirable or desirable phenotype in the prey by making the particular genotype more or less susceptible to the predator or dangerous to the predator, elimination of undesirable phenotypes and then genotypes occurs.