Temporal habitat variability and the maintenance of sex in host populations of the pea aphid

The evolutionary maintenance of sex, despite competition from asexual reproduction, has long intrigued the evolutionary biologists owing to its numerous apparent short-term costs. In aphids, winter climate is expected to determine the maintenance of sexual lineages in the high latitude zones owing t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Biological sciences, 2006-11, Vol.273 (1603), p.2887-2891
Main Authors: Frantz, A, Plantegenest, M, Simon, J.C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acyrthosiphon pisum
Alfalfa
animal reproduction
Animals
Aphids - genetics
Aphids - physiology
Beans
Climate
Clover
Ecological genetics
Ecological Specialization
Ecosystem
Evolution
faba beans
Gene Flow
genetic variation
Genotype
Genotypes
Geographical Parthenogenesis
geographical variation
habitats
Host Races
Life Sciences
Medicago sativa
parthenogenesis
Peas
Perennials
Pisum
Pisum sativum
Population ecology
Reproduction - physiology
Reproduction, Asexual
Seasons
Sex Maintenance
Sexual reproduction
speciation
Sympatric Speciation
Temporal Heterogeneity
Trifolium pratense
Vicia faba
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Summary:The evolutionary maintenance of sex, despite competition from asexual reproduction, has long intrigued the evolutionary biologists owing to its numerous apparent short-term costs. In aphids, winter climate is expected to determine the maintenance of sexual lineages in the high latitude zones owing to their exclusive ability to produce frost-resistant eggs. However, diverse reproductive modes may coexist at a local scale where climatic influence is counteracted by microgeographical factors. In this study, we tested the influence of local habitat characteristics on regional coexistence of reproductive modes in the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum. In the laboratory, the induction of sexual morph production of many pea aphid genotypes from the local fields of annual (pea and faba bean) and perennial (alfalfa and red clover) crops in Western France indicated that A. pisum lineages from annual crops had a significantly higher investment in sexual reproduction than A. pisum lineages from the perennial hosts. We propose that temporal habitat variability exerts a selective pressure to maintain the sexual reproduction in A. pisum. The ecological and evolutionary consequences of the association between the mode of reproduction and the host population on gene flow restriction and on ecological specialization are discussed.
ISSN:0962-8452
1471-2954
DOI:10.1098/rspb.2006.3665