Fachbereich 13 - Biologie
Institut für Evolution und Ökologie der Tiere
Evolutionsbiologie

Evolutionary costs and benefits of sexual reproduction

Do deleterious mutations accumulate faster in parthenogenetic than sexual populations? Are parthenogenetic animals more parasitiZed than sexual forms? We compare sexual and parthenogenetic hermaphrodites in crossing experiments and look for inherited defects in embryo development and differences in parasite loads in relation to genotype. Model system: Planarian flatworm Schmidtea polychroa. Additional keywords: cost of sex, mutation hypothesis, developmental instability, microsatellites.

Drittmittelgeber:

Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft

Beteiligte Wissenschaftler:

Prof. Nico K. Michiels (Leiter), Dr. J. Hinrich G. v. d. Schulenburg, Dr. Martin G. Storhas, Dr. Norbert Pongratz

Veröffentlichungen:

Michiels, N.K., L.W. Beukeboom, J.M. Greeff, A.J. Pemberton: Individual control over reproduction: an underestimated element in the maintenance of sex? Journal of Evolutionary Biology 12:1036-1039. (1999)

Weinzierl, R. P., P. Schmidt, N. K. Michiels: High fecundity and low fertility in parthenogenetic planarians. Invertebrate Biology 118(2): 87-94.(1999)

Storhas, M.G., R.P. Weinzierl, N.K. Michiels: Paternal sex in parthenogenetic planarians: a tool to investigate the accumulation of deleterious mutations. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 13(1): 1-8. (2000)

Greeff, J.M., M.G. Storhas, N.K. Michiels: Reducing losses to offspring mortality by redistributing resources. Functional Ecology 13(6): 786-792. (1999)