Imperial College London
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DrThomasScheuerl

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park)

Visiting Researcher
 
 
 
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t.scheuerl CV

 
 
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Centre for Population BiologySilwood Park

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Scheuerl:2011:jhered/esr036,
author = {Scheuerl, T and Riss, S and Stelzer, CP},
doi = {jhered/esr036},
journal = {Journal of Heredity},
pages = {409--415},
title = {Phenotypic effects of an allele causing obligate parthenogenesis in a rotifer},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esr036},
volume = {102},
year = {2011}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Transitions to obligate asexuality have been documented in almost all metazoan taxa, yet the conditions favoring such transitions remained largely unexplored. We address this problem in the rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus. In this species, a polymorphism at a single locus, op, can result in transitions to obligate parthenogenesis. Homozygotes for the op allele reproduce strictly by asexual reproduction, whereas heterozygous clones (+/op) and wild-type clones (+/+) are cyclical parthenogens that undergo sexual reproduction at high population densities. Here, we examine dosage effects of the op allele by analyzing various life-history characteristics and population traits in 10 clones for each of the 3 possible genotypes (op/op, +/op, and +/+). For most traits, we found that op/op clones differed significantly (P < 0.05) from the 2 cyclical parthenogenetic genotypes (+/+ and +/op). By contrast, the 2 cyclical parthenogenetic genotypes were almost indistinguishable, except that heterozygote individuals were slightly but significantly smaller in body size compared with wild-type individuals. Overall, this indicates that the op allele is selectively neutral in the heterozygous state. Thus, selective sweeps of this allele in natural populations would first require conditions favoring the generation of homozygotes. This may be given by inbreeding in very small populations or by double mutants in very large populations.
AU  - Scheuerl,T
AU  - Riss,S
AU  - Stelzer,CP
DO  - jhered/esr036
EP  - 415
PY  - 2011///
SN  - 1465-7333
SP  - 409
TI  - Phenotypic effects of an allele causing obligate parthenogenesis in a rotifer
T2  - Journal of Heredity
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esr036
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21576287
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/31117
VL  - 102
ER  -
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