Repeated evolution and reversibility of self-fertilization in the volvocine green algae.

ABSTRACT: Outcrossing and self-fertilization are fundamental strategies of sexual reproduction, each with different evolutionary costs and benefits. Self-fertilization is thought to be an evolutionary "dead-end" strategy, beneficial in the short term but costly in the long term, resulting in self-fertilizing species that occupy only the tips of phylogenetic trees. Here, we use volvocine green algae to investigate the evolution of self-fertilization. We use ancestral-state reconstructions to show that self-fertilization has repeatedly evolved from outcrossing ancestors and that multiple reversals from selfing to outcrossing have occurred. We use three phylogenetic metrics to show that self-fertilization is not restricted to the tips of the phylogenetic tree, a finding inconsistent with the view of se

SUBMITTER: Hanschen ER 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5796843 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature