Independently Evolving Species in Asexual Bdelloid Rotifers

Sexual Species Are Separated by Larger Genetic Gaps than Asexual Species in Rotifers

Why organisms diversify into discrete species instead of showing a continuum of genotypic and phenotypic forms is an important yet rarely studied question in speciation biology. Does species discreteness come from adaptation to fill discrete niches or from interspecific gaps generated by reproductive isolation? We investigate the importance of reproductive isolation by comparing genetic discret...

Spatial and temporal escape from fungal parasitism in natural communities of anciently asexual bdelloid rotifers.

Sexual reproduction is costly, but it is nearly ubiquitous among plants and animals, whereas obligately asexual taxa are rare and almost always short-lived. The Red Queen hypothesis proposes that sex overcomes its costs by enabling organisms to keep pace with coevolving parasites and pathogens. If so, the few cases of stable long-term asexuality ought to be found in groups whose coevolutionary ...

Who Needs Sex (or Males) Anyway?

0001 If you own a birdbath, chances are you’re hosting one of evolutionary biology’s most puzzling enigmas: bdelloid rotifers. These microscopic invertebrates—widely distributed in mosses, creeks, ponds, and other freshwater repositories—abandoned sex perhaps 100 million years ago, yet have apparently diverged into nearly 400 species. Bdelloids (the “b” is silent) reproduce through parthenogene...

Evidence for “ inter - and intraspecific horizontal genetic transfers ” between anciently asexual 1 bdelloid rotifers is explained by cross - contamination 2 3

Do Cardinal Directions Affect the Diversity of Bdelloid Rotifers ?

In this study, we investigated whether cardinal directions affect the distribution of bdelloid rotifers or not, in order to contribute to the studies will be carried out determining the distribution patterns of microorganisms. Thus, we examined species composition and abundance of bdelloid rotifers living on 10 cm of lichen samples which was collected from the east and north sides and from top ...