Experimental evidence of inbreeding depression for competitive ability and its population-level consequences in a mixed-mating plant.

ABSTRACT: Inbreeding depression is a key factor regulating the evolution of self-fertilization in plants. Despite predictions that inbreeding depression should evolve with selfing rates as deleterious alleles are increasingly exposed and removed by selection, evidence of purging the genetic load in wild populations is equivocal at best. This discordance could be explained, in part, if the load underlying inbreeding depression is subject to soft selection, i.e., the fitness of selfed individuals depends on the frequency and density of selfed vs. outcrossed individuals in the population. Somewhat counterintuitively, this means that populations with contrasting mutation load can have similar fitness. Soft selection against selfed individuals may be expected when there is inbreeding depression for compe

SUBMITTER: Walker MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11442323 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature