High levels of mitotic gene conversion are needed to effectively purge deleterious mutations in asexual organisms

Abstract

Self-fertilisation and asexual reproduction are both hypothesised to cause long-term extinction due to inefficient selection against deleterious mutations. Self-fertilisation can counter these effects through creating homozygous genotypes and purging deleterious mutations. Although complete asexuality lacks meiotic gene exchange, mitotic gene conversion creates homozygous regions that could limit deleterious mutation accumulation in an analogous manner. We compare mutation accumulation in self-fertilising and facultative sexual populations subject to mitotic gene conversion, and quantify the efficacy of purging in the latter. We first show analytically that purging is most effective with high levels of asexuality and gene conversion, and when deleterious mutations are recessive. We further show using simulations that, when mitotic gene conversion becomes sufficiently high in obligate asexuals, there is a reduction in the mutation count and a jump in homozygosity, reflecting purging. However, this mechanism is not necessarily as efficient at purging under high self-fertilisation, and elevated rates of mitotic gene conversion seem to be needed for widespread purging compared to empirical estimates. If gene conversion rates are allowed to evolve, then elevated rates that increase mean fitness can arise, but only if there is sufficient variance in the gene conversion rate. Conversely, if gene conversion rates are already high and rates are not constrained then they will slightly decrease, reducing mean fitness. Significance StatementAsexuality has been argued to be an evolutionary dead end, due to a lack of gene exchange causing inefficient selection acting against deleterious mutations. It has been proposed that asexuals can counter these negative effects through mitotic gene conversion, which exposes mutations to selection within individual lineages. Here, we theoretically investigate how effective this mechanism is. We compare results to those obtained when individuals reproduce by self-fertilisation, which has similar effects on exposing deleterious variants. While mitotic gene conversion can be effective in removing recessive deleterious mutations, high rates are required (that are not necessarily maintained by selection) and it is not always as effective as selfing.