Computer simulations of breeding regimes
We conducted computer simulations in SLiM3 to examine the impact of four breeding regimes on genetic and realised load, neutral genetic diversity, and fitness. In the “Minimise load” regime we examined whether mate pair selection can reduce the realised load of the offspring and alleviate inbreeding depression. However, purifying selection against the genetic load can reduce genetic diversity and result in the fixation of mildly deleterious mutations . To address this concern, we explored the impact reducing relatedness (or kinship) of parents, and this was simulated in the “Minimise relatedness” regime. Additionally, we simulated a regime that aimed to minimise realised load of the offspring whilst maintaining genetic diversity, “Minimise load and relatedness” regime. Here, exactly one male and one female from each family were selected to mate with an optimal partner from another family, to minimise realised load of their offspring. Finally, we simulated random mating “Random mating” regime. In each regime we randomly sampled 20 monogamous pairs of males and females and allowed each pair to produce a brood of 64 offspring per generation. We ran 100 replicates for each regime for 50 generations. Further detail about the breeding regimes and SliM model are given in Supplementary Information.