Data from: Rapid evolution of cheating mitochondrial genomes in small yeast populations

Outcrossed sex exposes genes to competition with their homologues,
allowing alleles that transmit more often than their competitors to spread
despite organismal fitness costs. Mitochondrial populations in species
with biparental inheritance are thought to be especially susceptible to
such cheaters because they lack strict transmission rules like meiosis or
maternal inheritance. Yet the interaction between mutation and natural
selection in the evolution of cheating mitochondrial genomes has not been
tested experimentally. Using yeast experimental populations, we show that
although cheaters were rare in a large sample of spontaneous
respiratory-deficient mitochondrial mutations (petites), cheaters evolve
under experimentally enforced outcrossing even when mutation supply and
selection are restricted by repeatedly bottlenecking populations.