“Jack‐of‐all‐trades” is parthenogenetic
Abstract Sex is evolutionarily more costly than parthenogenesis, evolutionary ecologists therefore wonder why sex is much more frequent than parthenogenesis in the majority of animal lineages. Intriguingly, parthenogenetic individuals and species are as common as or even more common than sexuals in...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Ecology and Evolution |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9036 |
| _version_ | 1811226946435022848 |
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| author | Mark Maraun Paul S. P. Bischof Finn L. Klemp Jule Pollack Linnea Raab Jan Schmerbach Ina Schaefer Stefan Scheu Tancredi Caruso |
| author_facet | Mark Maraun Paul S. P. Bischof Finn L. Klemp Jule Pollack Linnea Raab Jan Schmerbach Ina Schaefer Stefan Scheu Tancredi Caruso |
| author_sort | Mark Maraun |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Sex is evolutionarily more costly than parthenogenesis, evolutionary ecologists therefore wonder why sex is much more frequent than parthenogenesis in the majority of animal lineages. Intriguingly, parthenogenetic individuals and species are as common as or even more common than sexuals in some major and putative ancient animal lineages such as oribatid mites and rotifers. Here, we analyzed oribatid mites (Acari: Oribatida) as a model group because these mites are ancient (early Paleozoic), widely distributed around the globe, and include a high number of parthenogenetic species, which often co‐exist with sexual oribatid mite species. There is evidence that the reproductive mode is phylogenetically conserved in oribatid mites, which makes them an ideal model to test hypotheses on the relationship between reproductive mode and species' ecological strategies. We used oribatid mites to test the frozen niche variation hypothesis; we hypothesized that parthenogenetic oribatid mites occupy narrow specialized ecological niches. We used the geographic range of species as a proxy for specialization as specialized species typically do have narrower geographic ranges than generalistic species. After correcting for phylogenetic signal in reproductive mode and demonstrating that geographic range size has no phylogenetic signal, we found that parthenogenetic lineages have a higher probability to have broader geographic ranges than sexual species arguing against the frozen niche variation hypothesis. Rather, the results suggest that parthenogenetic oribatid mite species are more generalistic than sexual species supporting the general‐purpose genotype hypothesis. The reason why parthenogenetic oribatid mite species are generalists with wide geographic range sizes might be that they are of ancient origin reflecting that they adapted to varying environmental conditions during evolutionary history. Overall, our findings indicate that parthenogenetic oribatid mite species possess a widely adapted general‐purpose genotype and therefore might be viewed as “Jack‐of‐all‐trades.” |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T09:33:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-224b748524494929b85477ad5c510bc6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-7758 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T09:33:12Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ecology and Evolution |
| spelling | doaj.art-224b748524494929b85477ad5c510bc62022-12-22T03:38:18ZengWileyEcology and Evolution2045-77582022-06-01126n/an/a10.1002/ece3.9036“Jack‐of‐all‐trades” is parthenogeneticMark Maraun0Paul S. P. Bischof1Finn L. Klemp2Jule Pollack3Linnea Raab4Jan Schmerbach5Ina Schaefer6Stefan Scheu7Tancredi Caruso8JFB Institute of Zoology and Anthropology Georg August University Göttingen Göttingen GermanyJFB Institute of Zoology and Anthropology Georg August University Göttingen Göttingen GermanyJFB Institute of Zoology and Anthropology Georg August University Göttingen Göttingen GermanyJFB Institute of Zoology and Anthropology Georg August University Göttingen Göttingen GermanyJFB Institute of Zoology and Anthropology Georg August University Göttingen Göttingen GermanyJFB Institute of Zoology and Anthropology Georg August University Göttingen Göttingen GermanyJFB Institute of Zoology and Anthropology Georg August University Göttingen Göttingen GermanyJFB Institute of Zoology and Anthropology Georg August University Göttingen Göttingen GermanySchool of Biology and Environmental Science University College Dublin Dublin IrelandAbstract Sex is evolutionarily more costly than parthenogenesis, evolutionary ecologists therefore wonder why sex is much more frequent than parthenogenesis in the majority of animal lineages. Intriguingly, parthenogenetic individuals and species are as common as or even more common than sexuals in some major and putative ancient animal lineages such as oribatid mites and rotifers. Here, we analyzed oribatid mites (Acari: Oribatida) as a model group because these mites are ancient (early Paleozoic), widely distributed around the globe, and include a high number of parthenogenetic species, which often co‐exist with sexual oribatid mite species. There is evidence that the reproductive mode is phylogenetically conserved in oribatid mites, which makes them an ideal model to test hypotheses on the relationship between reproductive mode and species' ecological strategies. We used oribatid mites to test the frozen niche variation hypothesis; we hypothesized that parthenogenetic oribatid mites occupy narrow specialized ecological niches. We used the geographic range of species as a proxy for specialization as specialized species typically do have narrower geographic ranges than generalistic species. After correcting for phylogenetic signal in reproductive mode and demonstrating that geographic range size has no phylogenetic signal, we found that parthenogenetic lineages have a higher probability to have broader geographic ranges than sexual species arguing against the frozen niche variation hypothesis. Rather, the results suggest that parthenogenetic oribatid mite species are more generalistic than sexual species supporting the general‐purpose genotype hypothesis. The reason why parthenogenetic oribatid mite species are generalists with wide geographic range sizes might be that they are of ancient origin reflecting that they adapted to varying environmental conditions during evolutionary history. Overall, our findings indicate that parthenogenetic oribatid mite species possess a widely adapted general‐purpose genotype and therefore might be viewed as “Jack‐of‐all‐trades.”https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9036frozen niche variationgeneral‐purpose genotypegeneralismoribatid mitesparthenogenesisrange size |
| spellingShingle | Mark Maraun Paul S. P. Bischof Finn L. Klemp Jule Pollack Linnea Raab Jan Schmerbach Ina Schaefer Stefan Scheu Tancredi Caruso “Jack‐of‐all‐trades” is parthenogenetic Ecology and Evolution frozen niche variation general‐purpose genotype generalism oribatid mites parthenogenesis range size |
| title | “Jack‐of‐all‐trades” is parthenogenetic |
| title_full | “Jack‐of‐all‐trades” is parthenogenetic |
| title_fullStr | “Jack‐of‐all‐trades” is parthenogenetic |
| title_full_unstemmed | “Jack‐of‐all‐trades” is parthenogenetic |
| title_short | “Jack‐of‐all‐trades” is parthenogenetic |
| title_sort | jack of all trades is parthenogenetic |
| topic | frozen niche variation general‐purpose genotype generalism oribatid mites parthenogenesis range size |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9036 |
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