Conditions for the invasion of male-haploidy in diploid populations

Abstract

Male-haploidy has independently evolved several times in different phylogenetic groups and has led to various extant lineages in the insects, Arachnida and Rotifera. Although the stability of male-haploidy as an evolutionary strategy is not well understood, various theories address the invasion of male-haploidy in diploid populations. Here two of these theories: (i) the maternal transmission hypothesis (MTH) and (ii) the deleterious mutation hypothesis (DMH), are re-investigated with an agent-based model to understand the role of genetic drift as a mechanism facilitating the spread of male-haploidy. These two hypotheses are analysed separately and comparatively, and the results suggest dominance of the MTH. In addition, comparison of the stochastic results to deterministic results using the same model structure shows how genetic drift can enhance the parameter space where male-haploidy can be expected to invade.