Both species can also easily reproduce clonally, although the extent of clonal reproduction is not well documented in these two species.
Thus, clonal reproduction serves as a means of reproductive assurance.
This unusual reproductive mode, called apomixis, leads to clonal reproduction in that all offspring are by and large genetically identical to the parent.
The overwhelming preponderance of the clonal reproduction in the introduced range of W. auropunctata does not necessarily imply that clonal reproductives never reproduce sexually.
For example, species with sexual reproduction have lower extinction rates than species with asexual (or clonal) reproduction.
High rates of clonal reproduction have been both theoretically and empirically reported to increase the effective number of alleles and heterozygosity in a population41,42,43.
The findings suggest that the number of primary shoots available in the beginning of the season can strongly influence patterns of growth and clonal reproduction.
In this paper, for example, we find that high levels of PCD are only supported when the population is structured, but we also find that simple processes of death and clonal reproduction readily generate the necessary structure.
This may reflect a combination of massive ancestral LOH events and clonal reproduction in this cluster, with fixation of several deleterious alleles, affecting the overall fitness of these strains and leading to its niche restriction.
Because clonal reproduction is common among C. neoformans var.
grubii with the capacity for sexual as well as clonal reproduction evokes several other scientific and public health implications.
