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Extremely widespread parthenogenesis and a trade-off between alternative forms of reproduction in mayflies (Ephemeroptera)

View ORCID ProfileMaud Liegeois, View ORCID ProfileMichel Sartori, View ORCID ProfileTanja Schwander
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/841122
Maud Liegeois
1Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; emails: ;
2Cantonal Museum of Zoology, Palais de Rumine, Place de la Riponne 6, CH-1014 Lausanne, Switzerland; email:
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  • For correspondence: maud.liegeois@outlook.com maud.liegeois@outlook.com tanja.schwander@unil.ch michel.sartori@vd.ch
Michel Sartori
2Cantonal Museum of Zoology, Palais de Rumine, Place de la Riponne 6, CH-1014 Lausanne, Switzerland; email:
1Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; emails: ;
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Tanja Schwander
1Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; emails: ;
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Abstract

Studying alternative forms of reproduction in natural populations is of fundamental importance for understanding the costs and benefits of sex. Mayflies are one of the few animal groups where sexual reproduction co-occurs with different types of parthenogenesis, providing ideal conditions for identifying benefits of sex in natural populations. Here, we establish a catalogue of all known mayfly species capable of reproducing by parthenogenesis, as well as mayfly species unable to do so. Overall, 1.8% of the described species reproduce parthenogenetically, which is an order of magnitude higher than reported in other animal groups. This frequency even reaches 47.8% if estimates are based on the number of studied rather than described mayfly species. In terms of egg-hatching success, sex is a more successful strategy than parthenogenesis, and we found a trade-off between the efficiency of sexual and parthenogenetic reproduction across species. This means that improving the capacity for parthenogenesis may come at the cost of being less able to reproduce sexually, even in facultative parthenogens. Such a trade-off can help explain why facultative parthenogenesis is extremely rare among animals despite its potential to combine the benefits of sexual and parthenogenetic reproduction. We argue that parthenogenesis is frequently selected in mayflies in spite of this probable trade-off because their typically low dispersal ability and short and fragile adult life may frequently generate situations of mate limitation in females. Mayflies are currently clearly underappreciated for understanding the benefits of sex under natural conditions.

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Posted November 13, 2019.
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Extremely widespread parthenogenesis and a trade-off between alternative forms of reproduction in mayflies (Ephemeroptera)
Maud Liegeois, Michel Sartori, Tanja Schwander
bioRxiv 841122; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/841122
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Extremely widespread parthenogenesis and a trade-off between alternative forms of reproduction in mayflies (Ephemeroptera)
Maud Liegeois, Michel Sartori, Tanja Schwander
bioRxiv 841122; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/841122

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