Nucleotide polymorphism and within-gene recombination in Daphnia magna and D. pulex, two cyclical parthenogens.

ABSTRACT: Theory predicts that partially asexual organisms may make the "best of both worlds": for the most part, they avoid the costs of sexual reproduction, while still benefiting from an enhanced efficiency of selection compared to obligately asexual organisms. There is, however, little empirical data on partially asexual organisms to test this prediction. Here we examine patterns of nucleotide diversity at eight nuclear loci in continentwide samples of two species of cyclically parthenogenetic Daphnia to assess the effect of partial asexual reproduction on effective population size and amount of recombination. Both species have high nucleotide diversities and show abundant evidence for recombination, yielding large estimates of effective population sizes (300,000-600,000). This suggests that sel

SUBMITTER: Haag CR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2674827 | biostudies-literature | 2009 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature