Somatic mutation favors the evolution of diploidy

Abstract

Explanation of diploidy have focused on advantages gained from masking deleterious mutations that are inherited. Recent theory has shown that these explanations are flawed. Indeed, we still lack any satisfactory explanation of diploidy in species that are asexual or that recombine only rarely. Here I consider a possibility first suggested by Efroimson in 1932, by Muller in 1964 and by Crow and Kimura in 1965: diploidy may provide protection against somatic, not inherited, mutations. I both compare the mean fitness of haploid and diploid populations that are asexual and investigate the invasion of "diploidy" alleles in sexual populations. When deleterious mutations are partially recessive and somatic mutation is sufficiently common, somatic mutation provides a clear advantage to diploidy in both asexual and sexual species.