We estimated the average dominance coefficient of mildly deleterious mutations ((h) over bar, the proportion by which mutations in the heterozygous state reduce fitness components relative to those in the homozygous state) in the nematode Coenorhabditis elegans. From 56 worm lines that carry mutations induced by the point mutagen ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS), we selected 19 lines that are relatively high in fitness and estimated the viabilities, productivities, and relative fitnesses of heterozygotes and homozyotes compared to the ancestral wild type. There was very little effect of homozygous or heterozygous mutations on egg-to-adult viability. For productivity and relative fitness, we found that the average dominance coefficient, (h) over bar, was similar
to0.1, Suggesting that mildly deleterious mutations are on average partially recessive. These estimates were not significantly different from zero (complete recessivity) but were significantly different from 0.5 (additivity). In addition, there was a significant amount of variation in (h) over bar among lines, and analysis of average dominance coefficients of individual lines suggested that several lines showed overdominance for fitness. Further investigation of two of these lines partially confirmed this finding.