Data from: The double edged sword: the demographic consequences of the evolution of self-fertilisation

Phylogenies indicate that the transition from outcrossing to selfing is
frequent, with selfing populations being more prone to extinction. The
rates of transition to selfing and extinction, acting on different
timescales, could explain the observed distributions of extant selfing
species among taxa. However, phylogenetic and theoretical studies consider
these mechanisms independently, i.e. transitions do not cause extinction.
Here, we theoretically explore the demographic consequences of the
evolution of self-fertilization. Deleterious mutations and mutations
modifying the selfing rate are recurrently introduced and the number of
offspring depends on individual fitness, allowing for a demographic
feedback. We show that mutational meltdowns can be triggered in
populations evolving near strict selfing. Populations having survived the
demographic crash are more stable than ancestral outcrossing populations
once deleterious mutations are purged. The relatively rapid time-scales in
which extinctions occur indicate that during evolutionary transitions the
accumulation of deleterious mutations may not be the cause of extinctions
observed on longer time scales, which in turn could lead to the
underestimation of transition rates from outcrossing to selfing.