Because producing males is costly, the maintenance of outcrossing is an evolutionary puzzle. Theory predicts that it may be advantageous during adaptation to novel environments and should be selected for under environmental challenge. However, a given environmental change may influence fitness of males, females, and hermaphrodites or asexuals differently. Hence the relationship between reproductive system and dynamics of adaptation may not be driven solely by the level of outcrossing and recombination. Using Caenorhabditis elegans we show that thermal stress affects fitness of outcrossers much more drastically than that of selfers. This indicates that in addition to the level of genetic shuffling, reproductive modes may differ in the level of selective pressure experienced in novel environment. This has important implications for the extent to which finding of studies investigating the evolution of reproductive modes in the context of environmental changes can be generalized.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11692-017-9413-z
Because producing males is costly, the maintenance of outcrossing is an evolutionary puzzle. Theory predicts that it may be advantageous during adaptation to novel environments and should be selected for under environmental challenge. However, a given environmental change may influence fitness of males, females, and hermaphrodites or asexuals differently. Hence the relationship between reproductive system and dynamics of adaptation may not be driven solely by the level of outcrossing and recombination. Using Caenorhabditis elegans we show that thermal stress affects fitness of outcrossers much more drastically than that of selfers. This indicates that in addition to the level of genetic shuffling, reproductive modes may differ in the level of selective pressure experienced in novel environment. This has important implications for the extent to which finding of studies investigating the evolution of reproductive modes in the context of environmental changes can be generalized.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11692-017-9413-z
Because producing males is costly, the maintenance of outcrossing is an evolutionary puzzle. Theory predicts that it may be advantageous during adaptation to novel environments and should be selected for under environmental challenge. However, a given environmental change may influence fitness of males, females, and hermaphrodites or asexuals differently. Hence the relationship between reproductive system and dynamics of adaptation may not be driven solely by the level of outcrossing and recombination. Using Caenorhabditis elegans we show that thermal stress affects fitness of outcrossers much more drastically than that of selfers. This indicates that in addition to the level of genetic shuffling, reproductive modes may differ in the level of selective pressure experienced in novel environment. This has important implications for the extent to which finding of studies investigating the evolution of reproductive modes in the context of environmental changes can be generalized.