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Does selfing or outcrossing promote local adaptation?
Author(s) -
Hereford Joe
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
american journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.218
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1537-2197
pISSN - 0002-9122
DOI - 10.3732/ajb.0900224
Subject(s) - selfing , outcrossing , biology , local adaptation , mating system , adaptation (eye) , mating , gene flow , evolutionary biology , outbreeding depression , genetic variation , ecology , population , inbreeding , genetics , gene , pollen , demography , neuroscience , sociology
The degree to which plants self‐fertilize may impact their potential for genetic adaptation. Given that the mating system influences genetic processes within and among populations, the mating system could limit or promote local adaptation. I conducted a literature survey of published reciprocal transplant experiments in plant populations to quantify the effect of mating system on the magnitude of local adaptation. Mating system had no effect on local adaptation. I detected no effect when species were categorized as either self‐compatible or self‐incompatible or when accounting for environmental differences between source populations. The results suggest that, despite limited genetic variation in selfing species and greater potential for gene flow in outcrossing species, mating system has little influence on adaptation of populations.