TABLE 2.

Reductions in the cost of sex in asexually evolved lines in Cryptococcus neoformans

	MA lines of progenitor
Traits	JEC50 (MATα ade)	MCC3 (MATacna ura)
Mating ability	1.656 ± 1.643%***	1.002 ± 0.507%***
Vegetative fitness on SSΔN
Without mating partners	4.251 ± 0.179*	7.009 ± 0.181*
With mating partners	4.422 ± 0.253**	7.285 ± 0.194**
Cost of sexa	0.040 ± 0.022***	0.039 ± 0.023***
Relative cost of sex on SSΔNb
Cost in response to mating partners	0.398 ± 0.219***	0.442 ± 0.257***
Cost exerted on mating partners	0.715 ± 0.179***	0.775 ± 0.148***

Only data from generation 600 (30th transfers) are shown. The means and standard deviations for each strain background are from eight independent MA lines after ∼600 mitotic generations of mutation accumulation.

^aFor calculations, see footnote b in Table 1.

^bThese relative costs represent the ratios between those of the MA clones over those of the original clones, with those of the original clones scaled to 1.

Significant differences between the MA clones and their respective progenitor clones are shown at *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, and ***P < 0.001, respectively. Although the two parental strains differ significantly in their intrinsic fitness, there was no significant difference in the changes of vegetative fitness and relative costs of sex after 600 MA mitotic generations.