Abstract
The selective forces responsible for the evolution of gametophytic apomixis in outbreeding plant populations are analysed in terms of a simple single gene model. In the absence of selection, apomixis inevitably becomes fixed in a population. This conclusion holds regardless of the dominance relations of the alleles specifying apomictic versus sexual seed formation. Substantial heterotic viability selection is required to prevent fixation of recessive and codominant apomictic alleles and maintain a stable polymorphism at the mating system locus. These findings suggest that gametophytic apomixis should be a common mode of reproduction in plant species. Possible factors accounting for the relative paucity of apomictic plants are discussed. It is concluded that one of the major factors hindering the spread of apomixis is its usually complex inheritance and the need to accumulate, in the one individual, two or more mutations affecting meiosis and the reproductive system.
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