The Local Coexistence Pattern of Selfing Genotypes in Caenorhabditis elegans Natural Metapopulations.

ABSTRACT: To study the interplay of rare outcrossing and metapopulation structure, we focus on the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans Its remarkably low outcrossing rate is at the extreme end of the spectrum for facultative selfing organisms. At the demographic level, C. elegans natural populations undergo boom and bust dynamics on ephemeral resources, with the dauer diapause larva acting as the dispersal form. Here we investigate the small-scale genetic structure of C. elegans populations in two localities over several years, using 2b restriction-associated DNA sequencing of nearly 1000 individuals. We find a remarkably small number of genome-wide haplotypes, almost exclusively in the homozygous state, confirming the low effective outcrossing rate. Most strikingly, the major haplo

SUBMITTER: Richaud A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5788539 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature