Hardy-Weinberg and allelic frequencies shifts suggest selection
could act against melanin deposition
Inspecting deviations from HWE in the tawny owl population revealed
deviations from expected Hardy-Weinberg genotype frequencies:602-G/C , 2009Offspring : HomRef = 22, Het =
2, HomAlt = 1, X2=5.20, p=0.02;
2018Adults+Offspring : HomRef = 15, Het = 4,
HomAlt = 2, X2=5.11, p=0.02;
2021Adults : HomRef = 6; Het = 0; HomAlt = 1:
X2=7, p=0.008; 3657-C/T ,
2009Offspring : HomRef = 18, Het = 4, HomAlt = 3,
X2=6.25, p=0.01 (Table 3). Noticeably all reported
deviations were due to an excess of homozygotes for the reference
allele, combinations that yield the lowest probability of an individual
being grey (approximately 50%). Pairwise comparison of genotype
frequencies between years also suggested the possibility of selection
(Fig. S4), though we cannot discard a temporal effect since major
deviations from the F-stat distribution obtained with 100 replicates and
p-values < 0.01 related mostly to comparisons involving the
2009 cohort (Fig. S5).