Mating system and adaptive potential for leaf morphology

Self-pollination is often regarded as an evolutionary dead end, yet many selfers seem capable of retaining high adaptive potential. Andersson and Ofori perform experimental crosses within an initially self-sterile population of Crepis tectorum to produce an outbred and inbred progeny population, and find that a shift to selfing promotes adaptive potential for leaf morphology by increasing the overall genetic variance and by exposing potentially advantageous recessive alleles to selection. The results point to a positive role for inbreeding in phenotypic evolution, at least during or immediately after a rapid shift in mating system.