Selfing Shapes Fixation of a Mutant Allele Under Flux Equilibrium.

ABSTRACT: Sexual reproduction with alternative generations in a life cycle is an important feature in eukaryotic evolution. Partial selfing can regulate the efficacy of purging deleterious alleles in the gametophyte phase and the masking effect in heterozygotes in the sporophyte phase. Here, we develop a new theory to analyze how selfing shapes fixation of a mutant allele that is expressed in the gametophyte or the sporophyte phase only or in two phases. In an infinitely large population, we analyze a critical selfing rate beyond which the mutant allele tends to be fixed under equilibrium between irreversible mutation and selection effects. The critical selfing rate varies with genes expressed in alternative phases. In a finite population with partial self-fertilization, we apply Wright's method to

SUBMITTER: Xiao Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11652729 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature