MCGOVERN, TM; Dauphin Island Sea Labs: Self-fertilization in the brooding sea anemone Aulactinia incubans

Despite the potentially negative consequences (inbreeding depression) associated with inbreeding, self-fertilization in simultaneous hermaphrodites offers various genetic and ecological advantages. Several conditions, including mating between relatives in kin-structured groups, may serve to reduce inbreeding depression and lead to a greater tolerance of self-fertilization. Selfing is therefore predicted to be more common in groups with limited dispersal including brooding marine invertebrates. In this study, I use patterns of Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLPs) to examine in situ selfing rates in the brooding anemone Aulactinia incubans collected from 5 populations in the San Juan Islands of Washington state. Results demonstrate that selfing is highly variable between families, even within a population. Population averages suggest that selfing may be more common in some populations than others, though differences are not significant. Selfing rates are correlated (though not significantly) with a crude metric of kin structure, but more work is needed to determine if local selfing rates reflect variability in kin structure (and possibly tolerance for selfing) on a microgeographic scale or whether variability in selfing results from other factors such as differences in the availability of self and/ or outcross sperm.