Reproductive assurance drives transitions to self-fertilization in experimental Caenorhabditis elegans

Evolutionary transitions from outcrossing between individuals to selfing are partly responsible for the great diversity of animal and plant reproduction systems. The hypothesis of 'reproductive assurance' suggests that transitions to selfing occur because selfers that are able to reproduce...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Theologidis, Ioannis (author)
Other Authors: Chelo, Ivo M (author), Goy, Christine (author), Teotónio, Henrique (author)
Format: article
Language:eng
Published: 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10400.7/372
Country:Portugal
Oai:oai:arca.igc.gulbenkian.pt:10400.7/372
Description
Summary:Evolutionary transitions from outcrossing between individuals to selfing are partly responsible for the great diversity of animal and plant reproduction systems. The hypothesis of 'reproductive assurance' suggests that transitions to selfing occur because selfers that are able to reproduce on their own ensure the persistence of populations in environments where mates or pollination agents are unavailable. Here we test this hypothesis by performing experimental evolution in Caenorhabditis elegans.