The consequences of rare sexual reproduction by means of selfing in an otherwise clonally reproducing species.

ABSTRACT: Clonal reproduction of diploids leads to an increase in heterozygosity over time. A single round of selfing will then create new homozygotic genotypes. Given the same allele frequencies, heritable genetic variation is larger when there are more extreme, i.e. homozygotic genotypes. So after a long clonal expansion, one round of selfing increases heritable genetic variation, but any fully or partially recessive deleterious alleles simultaneously impose a fitness cost. Here we calculate that the cost of selfing in the yeast Saccharomyces is experienced only by a minority of zygotes. This allows a round of selfing to act as an evolutionary capacitor to unlock genetic variation previously found in a cryptic heterozygous form. We calculate the evolutionary consequences rather than the evolutiona

SUBMITTER: Masel J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3218209 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature