Mutation accumulation in a selfing population: consequences of different mutation rates between selfers and outcrossers

Mutation accumulation in inbreeding populations under evolution of the selfing rate

It is theoretically established that self-fertilization can facilitate mutation accumulation, thus increasing extinction risk. However, in previous studies, selfing rates are often set as fixed parameters, but in natural systems, evolution of selfing rates and deleterious mutations may mutually affect each other. I carried out simulations to investigate the dynamics of selfing rates and mutation accumulation, by allowing deleterious mutations to coevolve with alleles that modify the selfing rate (selfing modifiers). I found that selfing rates will often fluctuate over time, due to successive invasion of alleles that increase selfing and outcrossing. Since mutation fixation is mainly caused by Muller's ratchet, its rate is sensitive to the change of the selfing rate mutations will accumulate in a punctuated pattern. The dynamics are influenced by several factors, such as recombination and the selfing rate effects of selfing modifier loci. Also, such temporal variation produces variation of selfing rates and mutation accumulation rates between multiple conspecific populations, which can increase the average fitness across populations. As factors, such as the genomic mutation rate of deleterious mutations, can simultaneously influence the selfing rate and mutation fixation, effects of these factors on mutation accumulation rates can be complicated and non-monotonic.

Deleterious Mutation Burden and Its Association with Complex Traits in Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor)

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is a major staple food cereal for millions of people worldwide. Valluru et al. identify putative deleterious mutations among ∼5.5M segregating variants of 229 diverse sorghum...

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) is a major food cereal for millions of people worldwide. The sorghum genome, like other species, accumulates deleterious mutations, likely impacting its fitness. The lack of recombination, drift, and the coupling with favorable loci impede the removal of deleterious mutations from the genome by selection. To study how deleterious variants impact phenotypes, we identified putative deleterious mutations among ∼5.5 M segregating variants of 229 diverse biomass sorghum lines. We provide the whole-genome estimate of the deleterious burden in sorghum, showing that ∼33% of nonsynonymous substitutions are putatively deleterious. The pattern of mutation burden varies appreciably among racial groups. Across racial groups, the mutation burden correlated negatively with biomass, plant height, specific leaf area (SLA), and tissue starch content (TSC), suggesting that deleterious burden decreases trait fitness. Putatively deleterious variants explain roughly one-half of the genetic variance. However, there is only moderate improvement in total heritable variance explained for biomass (7.6%) and plant height (average of 3.1% across all stages). There is no advantage in total heritable variance for SLA and TSC. The contribution of putatively deleterious variants to phenotypic diversity therefore appears to be dependent on the genetic architecture of traits. Overall, these results suggest that incorporating putatively deleterious variants into genomic models slightly improves prediction accuracy because of extensive linkage. Knowledge of deleterious variants could be leveraged for sorghum breeding through either genome editing and/or conventional breeding that focuses on the selection of progeny with fewer deleterious alleles.