The effect of sex on the mean and variance of fitness in facultatively sexual rotifers

Becks, Lutz; Agrawal, Aneil F.

doi:10.1111/j.1420-9101.2010.02199.x

Cited by 34 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Despite its importance to theory, the effect of sex on the distribution of offspring fitness has been measured in only a handful of taxa [45],[53]–[57]. In several of those cases [54],[55],[57], sex has been observed to reduce the mean but increase the variance, suggesting that long-term advantages to sex may be reasonably common but in none of those previous cases were evolutionary changes in the rate of sex measured.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The rotifers for this study descended from a population collected from sediment taken from Lake Onondaga, New York, in spring 2009 [45]. The populations used here were started from lab stocks that have previously been adapted to two different food conditions, Environments A and B (which we have previously called “low” and “high” food conditions [17]).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Amcitic eggs develop within 1 d and the time the females start producing their first offspring is less than 24 h after hatching. Fertilized mictic eggs (resting eggs) from this population hatch spontaneously at a high rate under typical lab conditions (between 1 and 5 d after they are produced; see Material and Methods and [45]). From these observations, we approximate the mean time to complete an asexual generation to be ∼1.5 d. The “sexual cycle” takes ∼6 d but involves two generations (∼1.5 for the production of mictic females and then ∼4.5 d for sexually derived offspring to hatch and mature).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Evolution of Sex Is Favoured During Adaptation to New Environments

2012

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Evolution of Sex Is Favoured During Adaptation to New Environments

2012

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“…We addressed the question of whether sexual reproduction confers higher variance in fitness‐related traits relative to asexuals by comparing the variance for each of the three life history traits that we measured in sexual and asexual P. antipodarum (following Becks and Agrawal 2011). We began by using a variance components analysis to estimate the variance of each trait for each of the 12 sexual and 93 asexual families that we included in our experiment.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of polyploidy and reproductive mode on life history trait expression

Larkin

Tucci

Neiman

2016

Ecology and Evolution

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Ploidy elevation is increasingly recognized as a common and important source of genomic variation. Even so, the consequences and biological significance of polyploidy remain unclear, especially in animals. Here, our goal was to identify potential life history costs and benefits of polyploidy by conducting a large multiyear common garden experiment in Potamopyrgus antipodarum, a New Zealand freshwater snail that is a model system for the study of ploidy variation, sexual reproduction, host–parasite coevolution, and invasion ecology. Sexual diploid and asexual triploid and tetraploid P. antipodarum frequently coexist, allowing for powerful direct comparisons across ploidy levels and reproductive modes. Asexual reproduction and polyploidy are very often associated in animals, allowing us to also use these comparisons to address the maintenance of sex, itself one of the most important unresolved questions in evolutionary biology. Our study revealed that sexual diploid P. antipodarum grow and mature substantially more slowly than their asexual polyploid counterparts. We detected a strong negative correlation between the rate of growth and age at reproductive maturity, suggesting that the relatively early maturation of asexual polyploid P. antipodarum is driven by relatively rapid growth. The absence of evidence for life history differences between triploid and tetraploid asexuals indicates that ploidy elevation is unlikely to underlie the differences in trait values that we detected between sexual and asexual snails. Finally, we found that sexual P. antipodarum did not experience discernable phenotypic variance‐related benefits of sex and were more likely to die before achieving reproductive maturity than the asexuals. Taken together, these results suggest that under benign conditions, polyploidy does not impose obvious life history costs in P. antipodarum and that sexual P. antipodarum persist despite substantial life history disadvantages relative to their asexual counterparts.

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“…There is currently one study that demonstrated a cost of recombination in rotifers. Becks and Agrawal (66) found that, in benign laboratory environments, sexually produced offspring in Brachionus rotifers were on average less fit than asexually produced offspring. However, this comparison was done within cyclical parthenogenetic clones, so the authors compared the two reproductive modes within the same strains.…”

Section: Empirical Measurements Of Costsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does the avoidance of sexual costs increase fitness in asexual invaders?

Stelzer

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The high prevalence of sexual reproduction is considered a paradox mainly for two reasons. First, asexuals should enjoy various growth benefits because they seemingly rid themselves of the many inefficiencies of sexual reproduction-the so-called costs of sex. Second, there seems to be no lack of asexual origins because losses of sexual reproduction have been described in almost every larger eukaryotic taxon. Current attempts to resolve this paradox concentrate on a few hypotheses that provide universal benefits that would compensate for these costs and give sexual reproduction a net advantage. However, are new asexual lineages really those powerful invaders that could quickly displace their sexual ancestors? Research on the costs of sex indicates that sex is often stabilized by highly lineage-specific mechanisms. Two main categories can be distinguished. First are beneficial traits that evolved within a particular species and became tightly associated with sex (e.g., a mating system that involves sexual selection, or a sexual diapausing stage that allows survival through harsh periods). If such traits are absent in asexuals, simple growth efficiency considerations will not capture the fitness benefits gained by skipping sexual reproduction. Second, lineage-specific factors might prevent asexuals from reaching their full potential (e.g., dependence on fertilization in spermdependent parthenogens). Such observations suggest that the costs of sex are highly variable and often lower than theoretical considerations suggest. This has implications for the magnitude of universal benefits required to resolve the paradox of sex. evolution of sex | genetic variation | mating systems | clonality | parthenogenesis

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The effect of sex on the mean and variance of fitness in facultatively sexual rotifers

Cited by 34 publications

References 61 publications

The Evolution of Sex Is Favoured During Adaptation to New Environments

The Evolution of Sex Is Favoured During Adaptation to New Environments

Effects of polyploidy and reproductive mode on life history trait expression

Does the avoidance of sexual costs increase fitness in asexual invaders?

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