D. Charlesworth et al., INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN 2 HIGHLY INBREEDING POPULATIONS OF LEAVENWORTHIA, Proceedings - Royal Society. Biological Sciences, 258(1353), 1994, pp. 209-214
The effects of self-fertilization and outcrossing on progeny character
istics at several stages of the life cycle were compared in greenhouse
experiments on two Leavenworthia populations with high levels of natu
ral self-fertilization. Both the L. uniflora and L. crassa populations
appear to have considerable genetic load, as progeny from selfing had
lowered survival and fertility than outcrossed progeny. These data we
re used to estimate the mutation rate to deleterious alleles per diplo
id genome per generation, and the estimates are very high, consistent
with the few other data available.