Clonal Reproduction and Mutation

A general assumption regarding the interaction of clonal (asexual) reproduction and mutation is that clonal reproduction should expose organisms to excessive mutation load, due to the additional effects of somatic mutations, in organisms such as plants that do not sequester the germline early in reproduction. We have shown that this initial assumption may be overly simplistic, due to the action of within-individual selection, the shielding of clonal organisms from meiotic mutations in some life cycles, and the preservation of heterozygosity for deleterious recessive alleles in the absence of sexual reproduction.

publications on this topic:

• Marriage, T. and M.E. Orive. (2012) Mutation-selection balance and mixed mating with asexual reproduction. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 308:25-35.
• Marriage, T.N., S. Hudman, M.E. Mort, M.E. Orive, R.G. Shaw and J.K. Kelly. (2009) Direct estimation of the mutation rate at dinucleotide microsatellite loci in Arabidopsis thaliana (Brassicaceae). Heredity 103:310-317.
• Orive, M. E. (2001).  Somatic mutations in organisms with complex life histories.  Theoretical Population Biology, 59:235-249.
• Otto, S. P. and M. E. Orive (1995).  Evolutionary consequences of mutation and selection within an individual.  Genetics 141:1173 - 1187.