Genotypic diversity of asexual Ostracoda from a low arctic site

• Published in: Journal of Evolutionary Biology
• Main Authors: Havel, John E., Hebert, Paul D. N., Delorme, L. Denis
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1990
• Subjects: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Arctic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1420-9101.1990.3050391.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1046%2Fj.1420-9101.1990.3050391.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1420-9101.1990.3050391.x

Abstract The crustacean subclass Ostracoda shows an exceptionally high incidence of transitions from sexual to asexual reproduction, whose cause remains uncertain. In the current study, patterns of allozymic variation were examined in 12 species of asexual ostracodes at a low arctic site. Populations of 11 species had genotypic frequencies consistent with apomixis, having gross departures from Hardy‐Weinberg expectations and non‐random associations between loci. Allozyme phenotypes suggest that polyploidy is common in most asexual ostracode species in arctic ponds. Although most species had low clonal diversity, 3 had unusually high diversity, with a maximum of 18 clones detected per pond. Asexual species belonging to genera with sexual relatives had higher clonal diversities than those from genera without sexuals, suggesting that sexuals may serve as the source of this clonal diversity.