Mechanisms of coexistence between bisexual and parthenogenetic strains in geographically parthenogenetic species

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16H07263
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Biodiversity/Systematics
• Research Institution: Rissho University
• Principal Investigator: Sekine Kazuki 立正大学, 地球環境科学部, 助教 (10779698)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-08-26 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 進化生態 / 単為生殖 / 一斉羽化 / 流程分布

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The polymitarcyid mayfly, Ephoron shigae is distributed widely in Japan, and inhabits the middle and lower reaches of rivers. The wing stage is extremely short, up to two hours. Some populations are bisexual, and others are unisexual, so that E. shigae is a geographically parthenogenetic mayfly.
Individuals in both bisexual and parthenogenetic strains coexisted in the Ara-kawa population. In this study, the emergence time of bisexual and parthenogenetic strains was investigated to examine the reproductive ecology under the environment where both reproductive strains coexist. In the results, it was observed that individuals in the bisexual strains emerged one to two hours after parthenogenetic females did. Parthenogenetic females hardly copulated males in the bisexual strains. The coexistence of bisexual and parthenogenetic strains might lead to shift of emergence time of bisexual strains.

Free Research Field

進化生物学