Self-fertilization and the evolution of recombination

In this article, we study the effect of self-fertilization on the evolution of a modifier allele that alters the recombination rate between two selected loci. We consider two different life cycles: under gametophytic selfing, a given proportion of fertilizations involves gametes produced by the same haploid individual, while under sporophytic selfing, a proportion of fertilizations involves gametes produced by the same diploid individual. Under both life cycles, we derive approximations for the change in frequency of the recombination modifier when selection is weak relative to recombination, so that the population reaches a state of quasi-linkage equilibrium. We find that gametophytic selfing increases the range of epistasis under which increased recombination is favored; however, this effect is substantial only for high selfing rates. Moreover, gametophytic selfing affects the relative influence of different components of epistasis (additive X additive, additive X dominance, dominance X dominance) on the evolution of the modifier. Sporophytic selfing has much stronger effects: even a small selfing rate greatly increases the parameter range under which recombination is favored, when there is negative dominance X dominance epistasis. This effect is due to the fact that selfing generates a correlation in homozygosity at linked loci, which is reduced by recombination.