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The spread of apomixis and its effect on resident genetic variation
Author(s) -
ADOLFSSON S.,
BENGTSSON B. O.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of evolutionary biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.289
H-Index - 128
eISSN - 1420-9101
pISSN - 1010-061X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2007.01371.x
Subject(s) - apomixis , biology , fixation (population genetics) , genetics , genetic variation , allele , evolutionary biology , genotype , population , mutation , natural selection , ploidy , gene , demography , sociology
In a simulation model we investigated how much of the initial genetic variation that is retained in a population after a dominant mutation has brought apomixis to fixation in it. A marker allele associated with the apomixis mutation is generally retained after the fixation of apomixis, particularly if the two alleles are closely linked. The spread of asexuality, however, normally leads to almost no loss of genetic variation, neither with respect to cytotypes nor with respect to genotypes. This holds for large populations and apomixis mutants with strong pollen production. In smaller populations, and with apomicts with reduced pollen production, the outcome is more variable, ranging from no genetic variation retained to only weakly reduced variability compared with the initial state. These results help explain the high genetic variability in many apomicts. They also imply that natural selection will have many genotypes to act on even after the spread of apomixis.