Selfing-outcrossing as a gradient, not a dichotomy: propensity for selfing varies within a population of hermaphroditic animals

Abstract

For mating-system evolution, individual-level variation is essential. In self-compatible hermaphrodites, individuals may vary in their lifetime propensity for selfing, which consists of individual and environmental components. According to the reproductive assurance hypothesis explaining partial selfing, a key environmental factor is mate availability, which fluctuates with population density. We quantified individual variation in selfing propensity in a hermaphroditic snail by manipulating mate availability, recording mating behaviour, estimating selfing rates from progeny arrays, and measuring female lifetime fitness. We found substantial among-individual variation in selfing propensity, including pure outcrossers, pure selfers, and two types of plastic individuals. This variation only manifested in the laboratory; for the highly dense field population, data suggest full outcrossing. Meanwhile, experimental levels of mate availability (low versus moderate) neither significantly affected selfing propensities nor selfing rates. Instead, selfing propensities had an individual, environment-independent component. Our results imply that selfing propensities are partially heritable and, when selected on, cause mean selfing rates to evolve. We propose that genetic variation in selfing propensities offers a reconciliation between the reproductive assurance hypothesis and its limited empirical support in animals: distributions of selfing propensities vary temporally and spatially, thus obscuring the relationship between population density and realised selfing rates.