New preprint!!! with @yanivbrandvain and TMO https://twitter.com/biorxivpreprint/status/1156369619575332865

We used a large-scale reciprocal transplant to compare multiple fitness components in sexual and asexual plants

We find that, at all garden sites, sexuals have lower composite fitness due to increased overwinter mortality

Importantly, all our lines are diploid, and some of our asexuals are derived not from hybridization events but from intraspecific outcrossing events

In flowering plants, asexuality is usually confounded with both polyploidy and hybridization. This means we can account for both of these common confounding traits when assessing fitness, which is a rare opportunity!

Both hybrid and non-hybrid asexuals have higher survival, suggesting it's not hybridization driving this pattern. But sexuals are selfers, and it may be that the ecological cost of sex in this group is caused by inbreeding depression rather than sex

Also asexuals (especially hybrids) get nailed by insects, suggesting that herbivory is a major ecological cost of asex. This shows how important it is to consider biotic and abiotic factors in studying the evolution of sex!

Very happy to have this one out into the world! Feedback welcome!