Authors: James N Barron Troy J Lawson Philip A Jensen
Publish Date: 2015/12/09
Volume: 180, Issue: 3, Pages: 707-715
Abstract
The northern redbelly dace Chrosomus eos and the finescale dace C neogaeus have hybridized to produce an allfemale asexual hybrid C eosneogaeus that reproduces by spermlimited parthenogenesis gynogenesis However in this system gynogenesis is not 100 efficient triploid females are occasionally formed which reproduce as sexuals producing nuclear males and females of the paternal species generally C eos Thus the asexual lineage continually produces occasional males that can serve as a sperm source Because almost all hybrid offspring are females the hybrid population has the potential to grow more quickly and even outcompete the sexuals thus eliminating their own sperm source The current research uses behavioral testing ovarian analyses and modeling to examine three hypotheses for the maintenance of the sexual/asexual complex male discrimination against hybrid females fecundity differences between sexual and asexual females and production of nuclear male sexuals from the asexual lineage Results suggest that males do not discriminate against asexual females and that both sexual and asexual females have similar fecundities eliminating these hypotheses as potential coexistence mechanisms However computer simulations of population growth support the hypothesis that occasional triploidy within the hybrid population supplies enough breeding males to maintain the sexual/asexual complexFish were collected under permit SCP0104 issued by Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks to JNB All applicable institutional and/or national guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed Funding was provided by a Murdock Trust Partners in Science grant to JNB and TJL The manuscript was greatly improved by the comments from two anonymous reviewers
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