Fig. 1

Female gametophyte development in facultative apomictic (aposporous) allohexaploid Ranunculus auricomus. The scheme illustrates the parallel development of sexual (upper part) and apomictic (aposporous; lower part) gametophytes and seeds on the same plant (i.e., developmental pathways from megaspore/aposporous initial (a) over female gametophyte (b) to embryo (c). The recessive deleterious mutation is indicated by a red asterisk. In the reduced phase of the sexual development, strong selection (s = 1.0) eliminates mutated gametophytes. The mutation is transmitted into embryo and offspring under weaker selection (s < 1.0). The aposporous development without reduced phase transmits the mutation into embryo and offspring as the mutation remains masked