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

Stelzer, Claus‐Peter

doi:10.1073/pnas.1501726112

Cited by 34 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…The occurrence and evolution of sex, its fitness costs and benefits, and its adaptive significance have therefore been a major focus of microevolutionary studies on monogonont rotifers. Sex is costly for several reasons (Stelzer, 2015). Amongst others, sex reduces the number of offspring per parent at least by a factor of two.…”

Section: Rapid Evolution Of Sex and Its Implications For Adaptationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monogonont rotifers as model systems for the study of micro-evolutionary adaptation and its eco-evolutionary implications

Declerck

Papakostas

2016

Hydrobiologia

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A better understanding of the ability of organisms to adapt to local selection conditions is essential for a better insight in their ecological dynamics. The study of micro-evolutionary adaptation and its eco-evolutionary consequences is challenging for many reasons and the choice of a suitable model organism is particularly important. In this paper, we explain why monogonont rotifers, through their unique combination of traits, are ideal study organisms for this purpose. With a literature review, we demonstrate the capacity of monogonont populations to adapt to a variety of selection conditions (e.g., salinity, food shortage, elemental limitation, and disturbance regimes) within very short-time frames and highlight some potential eco-evolutionary implications. Although monogononts are increasingly used in ecoevolution-oriented studies, their potential is still underappreciated compared to other model organisms. No doubt the high prevalence of cryptic species complexes and the lack of genomic tools form important obstacles that may discourage researchers to work with this group. Here, we argue that none of these difficulties should prevent monogonont rotifers from becoming commonly used model organisms in micro-evolutionary studies and make suggestions for future research.

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Section: Rapid Evolution Of Sex and Its Implications For Adaptationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monogonont rotifers as model systems for the study of micro-evolutionary adaptation and its eco-evolutionary implications

Declerck

Papakostas

2016

Hydrobiologia

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“…However, the Red‐Queen does not apply to all host‐parasite systems; mechanistically, it requires assumptions about specificity of infection genetics between the host and parasite. Numerous host–parasite systems lack these natural history ingredients (e.g., Clay and Kover , Stelzer , and the focal system here). Hence, critics argue that the Red Queen remains too restrictive to generally drive population‐level variation in sex (Salathé et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hence, critics argue that the Red Queen remains too restrictive to generally drive population‐level variation in sex (Salathé et al. , Otto , Stelzer ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Allocation, not male resistance, increases male frequency during epidemics: a case study in facultatively sexual hosts

Hite

Penczykowski

Shocket

et al. 2017

Ecology

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Why do natural populations vary in the frequency of sexual reproduction? Virulent parasites may help explain why sex is favored during disease epidemics. To illustrate, we show a higher frequency of males and sexually produced offspring in natural populations of a facultative parthenogenetic host during fungal epidemics. In a multi-year survey of 32 lakes, the frequency of males (an index of sex) was higher in populations of zooplankton hosts with larger epidemics. A lake mesocosm experiment established causality: experimental epidemics produced a higher frequency of males relative to disease-free controls. One common explanation for such a pattern involves Red Queen (RQ) dynamics. However, this particular system lacks key genetic specificity mechanisms required for the RQ, so we evaluated two other hypotheses. First, individual females, when stressed by infection, could increase production of male offspring vs. female offspring (a tenant of the "Abandon Ship" theory). Data from a life table experiment supports this mechanism. Second, higher male frequency during epidemics could reflect a purely demographic process (illustrated with a demographic model): males could resist infection more than females (via size-based differences in resistance and mortality). However, we found no support for this resistance mechanism. A size-based model of resistance, parameterized with data, revealed why: higher male susceptibility negated the lower exposure (a size-based advantage) of males. These results suggest that parasite-mediated increases in allocation to sex by individual females, rather than male resistance, increased the frequency of sex during larger disease epidemics.

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“…Nowadays, genome dilution is often said to be irrelevant for species with separate sexes (e.g., Lehtonen et al 2012;Stelzer 2015). It would be more precise to say that it is irrelevant for asexual mutants that are genetically isolated.…”

Section: Directly Addresses Williamsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Recognising the Paradox of Sex

Dagg¹

2016

Philosophy and Theory in Biology

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Smith arrived at slightly different conclusions about the evolutionary maintenance of sexual reproduction, despite that both were staunch neo-Darwinians, simply because they approached the problem from different angles (life history vs. population genetics). This difference between their perspectives made them notice the so-called paradox of sexual reproduction for the first time. That is, Williams and Maynard Smith used their difference in perspective constructively, in order to raise a problem that had previously been overlooked by 'monocular' views. Evidence from before, during and after the recognition of the paradox supports this thesis of constructive difference. First, Maynard Smith had diagnosed the individual cost of sexual reproduction in full detail by 1958, but nobody raised an eyebrow for a decade. Second, both the correspondence between Williams and Maynard Smith and their publications show that they saw the same problem but against different backgrounds, because they viewed it from different perspectives. Third, further differences between Williams and Maynard Smith concerning the evolution of sex make no sense except in the light of the initial difference in their perspectives.

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

Cited by 34 publications

References 85 publications

Monogonont rotifers as model systems for the study of micro-evolutionary adaptation and its eco-evolutionary implications

Monogonont rotifers as model systems for the study of micro-evolutionary adaptation and its eco-evolutionary implications

Allocation, not male resistance, increases male frequency during epidemics: a case study in facultatively sexual hosts

On Recognising the Paradox of Sex

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