Effects of different levels of inbreeding on fitness components in Mimulus guttatus

Determined whether synergism exists for genes affecting fitness components in two partially selfing populations of monkey flower. For each wild population, a large randomly mated base population was constructed and many independent lines, inbred to differing degrees, were extracted from this base populations. Lines with expected inbreeding coefficients of 0, 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75 were raised simultaneously and were scored for germination, flowering, flower production, and pollen viability. All fitness traits except germination success declined with increased inbreeding, but in spite of the substantial inbreeding depression found in this study, relatively little evdience of synergistic epistasis was found. The only trait that showed evidence of synergism was pollen viability. -from Author

Duke Scholars

Author John H. Willis Biology