title: Consequences of clonality for sexual fitness: Clonal expansion enhances fitness under spatially restricted dispersal.
abstract: Clonality is a pervasive feature of sessile organisms, but this form of asexual reproduction is thought to interfere with sexual fitness via the movement of gametes among the modules that comprise the clone. This within-clone movement of gametes is expected to reduce sexual fitness via mate limitation of male reproductive success and, in some cases, via the production of highly inbred (i.e., self-fertilized) offspring. However, clonality also results in the spatial expansion of the genetic individual (i.e., genet), and this should decrease distances gametes and sexually produced offspring must travel to avoid competing with other gametes and offspring from the same clone. The extent to which any negative effects of clonality on mating success might be offset by the positive effects of spatial expansion is poorly understood. Here, we develop spatially explicit models in which fitness was determined by the success of genets through their male and female sex functions. Our results indicate that clonality serves to increase sexual fitness when it is associated with the outward expansion of the genet. Our models further reveal that the main fitness benefit of clonal expansion might occur through the dispersal of offspring over a wider area compared with nonclonal phenotypes. We conclude that, instead of interfering with sexual reproduction, clonal expansion should often serve to enhance sexual fitness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada, N1G 2W1;
authors.forename: Wendy E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Van Drunen
authors.affiliation: Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany; and.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van Kleunen
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, Canada, K9J 7B8 marceldorken@trentu.ca.
authors.forename: Marcel E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Dorken
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002999:Clone Cells; D003198:Computer Simulation; D056084:Genetic Fitness; D009154:Mutation; D010641:Phenotype; D012098:Reproduction; D058614:Seed Dispersal / Q000502:physiology*; D012639:Seeds / Q000502:physiology; D057945:Self-Fertilization; D013269:Stochastic Processes
keywords: asexual reproduction; geitonogamy; genet; modularity; ramet