Autopolyploidy exacerbates dominance masking under negative frequency-dependent selection: evidence from sporophytic self-incompatibility in Arabidopsis arenosa and Arabidopsis lyrata
5 affiliations
- 1Univ. Lille - CNRS 1 , ,
- 2Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research 2 , , ,
- 3Charles University 3 , ,
- 4Ghent University 4 , ,
- 5VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology 5 , ,
Abstract
Polyploidy is widespread within flowering plants, with 35% of extant species being recent polyploids. Whether and how polyploidy modulates the action of natural selection remains debated, and the particular case of balancing selection has been poorly explored. This study investigates the impact of autopolyploidy on sporophytic self-incompatibility in plants, a striking example of a genetic system evolving under a special form of balancing selection (strong negative frequency-dependent selection). Stochastic simulations reveal that under strict co-dominance, the number of S-alleles maintained in tetraploid populations is expected to double as compared with diploid populations. However, under a model with strict hierarchical dominance among alleles, the number of S-alleles increases only slightly, but gene diversity and observed heterozygosity are substantially reduced in tetraploids because of enhanced dominance masking effects. Empirical data on Arabidopsis arenosa and Arabidopsis lyrata confirm the latter predictions, showing similar levels of allelic diversity but dramatically lower observed and expected heterozygosity at the self-incompatibility locus in tetraploids compared with diploids. The study highlights the significant impact of autopolyploidy on patterns of diversity at the self-incompatibility locus, emphasizing the increased dominance effect in tetraploids. The results also allow us to reject a scenario of strong founder effects associated with the evolution of the polyploid lineages. This article is part of the theme issue 'Exploring negative frequency dependent selection across levels: from genetics to ecology and back again'.
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BibTeX
@article{vekemans2026autopolyploidy,
title = {{Autopolyploidy exacerbates dominance masking under negative frequency-dependent selection: evidence from sporophytic self-incompatibility in Arabidopsis arenosa and Arabidopsis lyrata}},
author = {Xavier Vekemans and Uliana Kolesnikova and Jakub Vlček and Mathieu Genête and Adrien Dufour and Rowan Welti and Céline Poux and Vincent Castric and Filip Kolář and Polina Yu. Novikova},
journal = {Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences},
year = {2026},
month = jun,
doi = {10.1098/rstb.2025.0182},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2025.0182},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Autopolyploidy exacerbates dominance masking under negative frequency-dependent selection: evidence from sporophytic self-incompatibility in Arabidopsis arenosa and Arabidopsis lyrata
AU - Xavier Vekemans
AU - Uliana Kolesnikova
AU - Jakub Vlček
AU - Mathieu Genête
AU - Adrien Dufour
AU - Rowan Welti
AU - Céline Poux
AU - Vincent Castric
AU - Filip Kolář
AU - Polina Yu. Novikova
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/06/11
JO - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
DO - 10.1098/rstb.2025.0182
UR - https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2025.0182
AB - Polyploidy is widespread within flowering plants, with 35% of extant species being recent polyploids. Whether and how polyploidy modulates the action of natural selection remains debated, and the particular case of balancing selection has been poorly explored. This study investigates the impact of autopolyploidy on sporophytic self-incompatibility in plants, a striking example of a genetic system evolving under a special form of balancing selection (strong negative frequency-dependent selection). Stochastic simulations reveal that under strict co-dominance, the number of S-alleles maintained in tetraploid populations is expected to double as compared with diploid populations. However, under a model with strict hierarchical dominance among alleles, the number of S-alleles increases only slightly, but gene diversity and observed heterozygosity are substantially reduced in tetraploids because of enhanced dominance masking effects. Empirical data on Arabidopsis arenosa and Arabidopsis lyrata confirm the latter predictions, showing similar levels of allelic diversity but dramatically lower observed and expected heterozygosity at the self-incompatibility locus in tetraploids compared with diploids. The study highlights the significant impact of autopolyploidy on patterns of diversity at the self-incompatibility locus, emphasizing the increased dominance effect in tetraploids. The results also allow us to reject a scenario of strong founder effects associated with the evolution of the polyploid lineages. This article is part of the theme issue 'Exploring negative frequency dependent selection across levels: from genetics to ecology and back again'.
SN - 0962-8436
SN - 1471-2970
ER -