Cryptic sexual populations account for genetic diversity and ecological success in a widely distributed, asexual fungus-growing ant.

ABSTRACT: Sex and recombination are central processes in life generating genetic diversity. Organisms that rely on asexual propagation risk extinction due to the loss of genetic diversity and the inability to adapt to changing environmental conditions. The fungus-growing ant species Mycocepurus smithii was thought to be obligately asexual because only parthenogenetic populations have been collected from widely separated geographic localities. Nonetheless, M. smithii is ecologically successful, with the most extensive distribution and the highest population densities of any fungus-growing ant. Here we report that M. smithii actually consists of a mosaic of asexual and sexual populations that are nonrandomly distributed geographically. The sexual populations cluster along the Rio Amazonas and the Rio

SUBMITTER: Rabeling C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3145723 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature