INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN 2 HIGHLY INBREEDING POPULATIONS OF LEAVENWORTHIA

The effects of self-fertilization and outcrossing on progeny characteristics at several stages of the life cycle were compared in greenhouse experiments on two Leavenworthia populations with high levels of natural 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 were used to estimate the mutation rate to deleterious alleles per diploid genome per generation, and the estimates are very high, consistent with the few other data available.