Population genetics of marine pelecypods. 3. Epistasis between functionally related isoenzymes of Mytilus edulis.

The distribution of interlocus genotypic combinations was examined in Mytilus edulis for interdependence between two loci synthesizing functionally related isoenzymes. There is significant dependence between the Leucine Aminopeptidase and Aminopeptidase loci, which we attribute to epistasis, since the magnitude of dependency varies with age. Furthermore, dependency varies in magnitude with position in the intertidal zone from which samples were taken, suggesting that epistasis is a function of the combination of certain non-homologous alleles as well as of the environmental circumstance in which the combinations occur.