Editing Arabidopsis thaliana (section)

===Self-pollination===
''A. thaliana'' is a predominantly self-pollinating plant with an outcrossing rate estimated at less than 0.3%.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Abbott RJ, Gomes MF |year=1989 |title=Population genetic structure and outcrossing rate of ''Arabidopsis thaliana'' (L.) Heynh |journal=Heredity |volume=62 |issue=3 |pages=411–418 |doi=10.1038/hdy.1989.56 |doi-access=free}}</ref> An analysis of the genome-wide pattern of linkage disequilibrium suggested that self-pollination evolved roughly a million years ago or more.<ref name="pmid17656687">{{cite journal |vauthors=Tang C, Toomajian C, Sherman-Broyles S, Plagnol V, Guo YL, Hu TT, Clark RM, Nasrallah JB, Weigel D, Nordborg M |title=The evolution of selfing in ''Arabidopsis thaliana'' |journal=Science |volume=317 |issue=5841 |pages=1070–2 |date=August 2007 |pmid=17656687 |doi=10.1126/science.1143153 |bibcode=2007Sci...317.1070T |s2cid=45853624}}</ref> Meioses that lead to self-pollination are unlikely to produce significant beneficial genetic variability. However, these meioses can provide the adaptive benefit of recombinational repair of DNA damages during formation of germ cells at each generation.<ref>Bernstein H; Byerly HC; Hopf FA; Michod RE (1985). "Genetic damage, mutation, and the evolution of sex". Science. 229 (4719): 1277–81. Bibcode:1985Sci...229.1277B. doi:10.1126/science.3898363. PMID 3898363</ref> Such a benefit may have been sufficient to allow the long-term persistence of meioses even when followed by self-fertilization. A physical mechanism for self-pollination in ''A. thaliana'' is through pre-anthesis autogamy, such that fertilisation takes place largely before flower opening.