Isabelle Turner

Abstract Calls to adopt seed sourcing strategies in biological restoration that preserve local adaptation while maximizing genetic variation (e.g., regional admixture provenancing) are increasingly common. Heterosis, the increased fitness of progeny from between- relative to within-population crosses, could provide an added benefit under such strategies, but several open questions remain. We quantified heterosis in crosses between three small remnant populations of a rare prairie forb.

Abstract Background and Aims A major goal in both basic and applied evolutionary genetics is understanding the role of drift in shaping genetic variation with fitness consequences. For organisms amenable to controlled crosses, the increased fitness of progeny from between- relative to within-population crosses (heterosis) provides a useful tool to infer historical fixation of partly recessive deleterious alleles by drift and/or bottlenecks.