Abstract
BackgroundCarassius gibelio, a cyprinid fish from Eurasia, has the ability to reproduce both sexually and asexually. This fish is also known as an invasive species which colonized almost all continental Europe, most likely originating from Asia and Eastern Europe. Populations of both sexually and asexually reproducing individuals exist in sympatry. In this study we try to elucidate the advantages of such a mixed type of reproduction. We investigate the dynamics of two sympatric populations with sexual and asexual reproduction in a periodically fluctuating environment. We define an individual-based computational model in which genotypes are represented by L loci, and the environment is composed of L resources for which the two populations compete.ResultsOur model demonstrates advantageous population dynamics where the optimal percentage of asexual reproduction depends on selection strength, on the number of selected loci and on the timescale of environmental fluctuations. We show that the sexual reproduction is necessary for "generating" fit genotypes, while the asexual reproduction is suitable for "amplifying" them. The simulations show that the optimal percentage of asexual reproduction increases with the length of the environment stability period and decrease with the strength of the selection and the number of loci.ConclusionsIn this paper we addressed the advantages of a mixed type of sexual and asexual reproduction in a changing environment and explored the idea that a species that is able to adapt itself to environmental fluctuation can easily colonize a new habitat. Our results could provide a possible explanation for the rapid and efficient invasion of species with a variable ratio of sexual and asexual reproduction such as Carassius gibelio.
Highlights
IntroductionA cyprinid fish from Eurasia, has the ability to reproduce both sexually and asexually
Carassius gibelio, a cyprinid fish from Eurasia, has the ability to reproduce both sexually and asexually
In this paper we study, by a computational model, the advantages of a mixed type of sexual and asexual reproduction in a changing environment following the idea that a species that is able to adapt itself to environmental fluctuation can colonize a new habitat and that a particular ratio of sexual versus asexual reproduction is favoured by certain levels of environmental stability
Summary
A cyprinid fish from Eurasia, has the ability to reproduce both sexually and asexually This fish is known as an invasive species which colonized almost all continental Europe, most likely originating from Asia and Eastern Europe. Populations of both sexually and asexually reproducing individuals exist in sympatry. There is an ongoing discussion about the maintenance of sexual reproduction in most eukaryotes despite its evolutionary costs: recombination can break up favourable sets of genes accumulated by selection and asexual populations comprising only females can reproduce twice as fast in each generation than bisexual populations without the need to produce males for ongoing reproduction [1]. Several hypotheses have been presented in order to explain the absence of the twofold advantage [12,13] many of them based on the discrimination ability and the efficiency of males during mate choice of sexual reproduction [14,15,16,17]
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