Lost Sex: The Evolutionary Biology of Parthenogenesis

Sampul Depan
Isa Schön, Koen Martens, Peter van Dijk
Springer Science & Business Media, 22 Sep 2009 - 615 halaman

Sex is the queen of problems in evolutionary biology. Generations of researchers have investigated one of the last remaining evolutionary paradoxes: why sex exists at all. Given that sexual reproduction is costly from an evolutionary point of view, one could wonder why not all animals and plants reproduce asexually. Dozens of contemporary hypotheses attempt to explain the prevalence of sex and its advantages and predict the early extinction of fully asexual lineages.

The major theme of this book is: what is the fate of animal and plant groups in which sex is lost? Initial chapters discuss theory behind asexual life: what major disadvantages do asexual groups have to face, what are the genetic and ecological consequences and what does this theory predict for more applied aspects of asexual life, for example in agricultural pests, diseases as well as in cultural crops such as grapes. Cases studies in many animals (focusing on both invertebrates and vertebrates) and plants reveal parallel, but also singularly novel adaptations to the absence of meiosis and syngamy. And last but not least, are asexuals really doomed to early extinction or do genuine ancient asexuals exist?

This book assembles contributions from the most important research groups dealing with asexual evolution in eukaryotes. It is a milestone in research on parthenogenesis and will be useful to undergraduate as well as graduate students and to senior researchers in all fields of evolutionary biology, as the paradox of sex remains its queen of problems.

 

Isi

A Very LargeScale Overview
1
2 The Evolution of the Problem of Sex
21
Basics for Nonbotanists
47
4 Cytology of Asexual Animals
63
5 A Graphical Approach to Lineage Selection Between Clonals and Sexuals
75
General Purpose Genotypes and Frozen Niche Variation
98
7 Sex and the Red Queen
133
Opportunities for Asexuality
160
Model Pathways to Losing Sex and Bringing It Back
317
17 Thelytoky in Hymenoptera with Venturia canescens and Leptopilina clavipes as Case Studies
347
Phylogenetic Relic or Evolutionary Resurrection?
376
19 SpermDependent Parthenogenesis and Hybridogenesis in Teleost Fishes
399
Mutational Load in Hemiclonal Water Frogs
433
Constraints and Correlations
447
22 An ApomixisGenes View on Dandelions
475
23 Allelic Sequence Divergence in the Apomictic Boechera holboellii Complex
494

9 The Elusive Clone In Search of Its True Nature and Identity
187
10 Asexual Speciation
201
Ancient Asexual Scandals or Scandalous Gossip?
217
Evolution Without Sex
241
Progress in Understanding the Success of an Evolutionary Scandal
259
14 Sex Loss in Monogonont Rotifers
280
Sexual Versus Asexual Reproduction
295
24 Asexual Reproduction in Infectious Diseases
517
The Rapid Evolution of Aphid Asexual Lineages in Relation to Geography Host Plant Adaptation and Resistance to Pesticides
535
26 Epigenetic Mechanisms in Mammals and Their Effects on Cloning Procedures
558
Example of Clonal Reproduction in Agricultural Important Plants
581
Index
599
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