Diverse mating phenotypes impact the spread of  wtf  meiotic drivers in  Schizosaccharomyces pombe .
Meiotic drivers are genetic elements that break Mendel's law of segregation to be transmitted into more than half of the offspring produced by a heterozygote. The success of a driver relies on outcrossing (mating between individuals from distinct lineages) because drivers gain their advantage in heterozygotes. It is, therefore, curious that  Schizosaccharomyces pombe , a species reported to rarely outcross, harbors many meiotic drivers. To address this paradox, we measured mating phenotypes in  S. pombe  natural isolates. We found that the propensity for cells from distinct clonal lineages to mate varies between natural isolates and can be affected both by cell density and by the available sexual partners. Additionally, we found that the observed levels of preferential mating between cells from the same clonal lineage can slow, but not prevent, the spread of a  wtf  meiotic driver in the absence of additional fitness costs linked to the driver. These analyses reveal parameters critical to understanding the evolution of  S. pombe  and help explain the success of meiotic drivers in this species.
López Hernández JF, Helston RM, Lange JJ, Billmyre RB, Schaffner SH, Eickbush MT, McCroskey S, Zanders SE