Functional roles of reproductive mode in persisting population and maintaining genetic diversity of daphnia species.

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25291094
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Ecology/Environment
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Urabe Jotaro 東北大学, 生命科学研究科, 教授 (50250163)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): MAKINO WATARU 東北大学, 大学院生命科学研究科, 助教 (90372309)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: プランクトン / 遺伝的多様性 / 個体群動態 / ミジンコ / 湖沼 / 休眠卵 / 絶対単為生殖 / 外来種

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In general, Daphnia reproduce parthenogenetically but switch to sexual reproduction for producing resting eggs that are capable of overwintering. If certain parthenogenetic individuals are competitively superior to others, their success results to reduce genetic diversity. However, it not yet clear how competitive persistence of daphnia populations are related with maintenance of the genetic diversities. This study showed that some of competitively inferior individuals are highly sensitive to environmental changes in initiating production of the resting or sexual eggs By producing these eggs before intensifying the competitive interactions, daphnia species maintained their genetic diversities.

Free Research Field

生態学