An Evolutionary Advantage of Haploidy in Large Yeast Populations

Abstract

Although seed plants and multicellular animals are predominantly diploid, the prominence of diploidy varies greatly among eukaryote life cycles, and no general evolutionary advantage of diploidy has been demonstrated. By doubling the copy number of each gene, diploidy may increase the rate at which adaptive mutations are produced. However, models suggest that this does not necessarily accelerate adaptation by diploid populations. We tested model predictions regarding rates of adaptation using asexual yeast populations. Adaptive mutations were on average partially recessive. As predicted, diploidy slowed adaptation by large populations but not by small populations.