Mutation Accumulation in a Selfing Population: Consequences of Different Mutation Rates between Selfers and Outcrossers

Shin-Ichiro Nakayama, Shoi Shi, Masaki Tateno, Masakazu Shimada and K Ryo Takahasi

PLOS ONE, 2012, vol. 7, issue 3, 1-6

Abstract: Currently existing theories predict that because deleterious mutations accumulate at a higher rate, selfing populations suffer from more intense genetic degradation relative to outcrossing populations. This prediction may not always be true when we consider a potential difference in deleterious mutation rate between selfers and outcrossers. By analyzing the evolutionary stability of selfing and outcrossing in an infinite population, we found that the genome-wide deleterious mutation rate would be lower in selfing than in outcrossing organisms. When this difference in mutation rate was included in simulations, we found that in a small population, mutations accumulated more slowly under selfing rather than outcrossing. This result suggests that under frequent and intense bottlenecks, a selfing population may have a lower risk of genetic extinction than an outcrossing population.

Date: 2012
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0033541

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0033541

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