Population Rescue through an Increase in the Selfing Rate under Pollen Limitation: Plasticity versus Evolution

Increased rates of self-fertilization offer reproductive assurance when plant populations experience pollen limitation, but self-fertilization may reduce fitness by exposing deleterious mutations. If an environmental change responsible for pollen limitation also induces plastic mating system shifts toward self-pollination, the reproductive assurance benefit and inbreeding depression cost of increased self-fertilization occur immediately, while the benefit and cost happen more gradually when increased self-fertilization occur through evolution. I built eco-evolutionary models to explore the demographic and genetic conditions in which higher self-fertilization by plasticity and/or evolution rescues populations, following deficits due to a sudden onset of pollen limitation. Rescue is most likely under an intermediate level of selfing rate increase, either through plasticity or evolution, and this critical level of selfing rate increase is higher under stronger pollen limitation. Generally, rescue is more likely through plasticity than through evolution. Under weak pollen limitation, rescue by enhanced self-fertilization may mainly occur through purging of deleterious mutations rather than reproductive assurance. The selfing rate increase conferring the highest rescue probability is lower when the initial population size is smaller. This article shows the importance of plasticity during plant population rescue and offers insights for future studies of the evolution of mating system plasticity.

Automated summary

Increased self-fertilization can provide reproductive assurance and decrease fitness due to deleterious mutations when plant populations experience pollen limitation. This study used eco-evolutionary models to examine the conditions in which higher self-fertilization through plasticity and/or evolution can rescue populations from pollen limitation. The results showed that rescue is most likely to occur at an intermediate level of selfing rate increase, with plasticity being more likely than evolution. The study emphasizes the importance of plasticity in plant population rescue and provides insights for understanding the evolution of mating system plasticity in future research.