Abstract
Many self-incompatible plant species exist in continuous populations in which individuals disperse locally. Local dispersal of pollen and seeds facilitates inbreeding because pollen pools are likely to contain relatives. Self-incompatibility promotes outbreeding because relatives are likely to carry incompatible alleles. Therefore, populations can experience an antagonism between these forces. In this study, a novel computational model is used to explore the effects of this antagonism on gene flow, allelic diversity, neighbourhood sizes, and identity by descent. I confirm that this antagonism is sensitive to dispersal levels and linkage. However, the results suggest that there is little to no difference between the effects of gametophytic and sporophytic self-incompatibility systems (GSI and SSI) on unlinked loci. More importantly, both GSI and SSI affect unlinked loci in a manner similar to obligate outcrossing without mating types. This suggests that the primary evolutionary impact of self-incompatibility systems may be to prevent selfing, and prevention of biparental inbreeding might be a beneficial side-effect.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 2327-2336 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Molecular ecology |
Volume | 18 |
Issue number | 11 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 2009 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Genetic structure
- Isolation by distance
- Local dispersal
- Neighbourhood size
- Recombination
- Self-incompatibility
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Genetics