On the fate of sexual traits under asexuality

@article{vanderKooi2014OnTF,
  title={On the fate of sexual traits under asexuality},
  author={Casper J. van der Kooi and Tanja Schwander},
  journal={Biological Reviews},
  year={2014},
  volume={89}
}
Environmental shifts and life‐history changes may result in formerly adaptive traits becoming non‐functional or maladaptive. In the absence of pleiotropy and other constraints, such traits may decay as a consequence of neutral mutation accumulation or selective processes, highlighting the importance of natural selection for adaptations. A suite of traits are expected to lose their adaptive function in asexual organisms derived from sexual ancestors, and the many independent transitions to… 
View on Wiley
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
71 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
5
Background Citations
25
Methods Citations
2
Results Citations
1

71 Citations

Decay of Sexual Trait Genes in an Asexual Parasitoid Wasp

It is shown that male-specific traits do indeed accumulate deleterious mutations as expected by theory, and provides an excellent starting point for detailed study of the genomics of neutral and selected trait decay.

Genetic causes of transitions from sexual reproduction to asexuality in plants and animals

Current data suggest that hybridization is more likely to play a causal role in transitions to asexuality than polyploidy, and this work synthesizes the literature addressing proximate causes of transitions from sexual to a sexual reproduction in plants and animals.

Male Sexual Trait Decay in Two Asexual Springtail Populations Follows Neutral Mutation Accumulation Theory

This study compared several key male sexual traits of a sexual population and two distinct parthenogenetic lines of the springtail F. candida to suggest that selection on sexually selected traits is expected to be weaker or absent, allowing the decay and ultimately loss of sexual traits.

Male evolution under relaxed selection: Evidence for degeneration in sperm produced by male snails from asexual lineages

Transitions to asexual reproduction might be irreversible at least in part because male function is likely to be compromised, and the results are consistent with a scenario where relaxed selection translates into rapid trait degeneration.

Male phenotypes in a female framework: Evidence for degeneration in sperm produced by male snails from asexual lineages.

Transitions to asexual reproduction in a New Zealand freshwater snail species might be irreversible, at least in part because male function is likely to be compromised and consistent with a scenario where relaxed selection and/or mutation accumulation in the absence of sex translates into rapid trait degeneration.

Transitions to asexuality and evolution of gene expression in Artemia brine shrimp

This study investigated the phylogenetic relationship and patterns of gene expression of sexual and asexual lineages of Eurasian Artemia brine shrimp, to assess how gene expression patterns are affected by the transition to asexuality.

Repeated Evolution of Asexuality Involves Convergent Gene Expression Changes

By identifying changes occurring across multiple independent transitions to asexuality, this work provides a rare insight into the molecular basis of asexual phenotypes and suggests that the evolutionary path to a sexual orientation is highly constrained, requiring repeated changes to the same key genes.

Sex loss in insects: causes of asexuality and consequences for genomes.

Genes involved in the convergent evolution of asexuality in stick insects

The results provide a rare insight into the molecular basis of asexual phenotypes and suggest that the evolutionary path to asexuality is highly constrained, requiring repeated changes to the same key genes.

Sexual Traits Are Not Markedly Vestigialized in Asexual Populations of Decodon verticillatus (Lythraceae)

The observation that no asexual genotype of D. verticillatus is widespread suggests that asexual populations do not persist long—perhaps only long enough to exhibit the very first stages of sexual vestigialization.
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 186 REFERENCES

Neutral and selection-driven decay of sexual traits in asexual stick insects

Female sexual traits were decayed even in recently derived asexuals, suggesting that trait changes following the evolution of asexuality, when they occur, proceed rapidly and are driven by selective processes rather than drift.

Effects of Parthenogenesis and Geographic Isolation on Female Sexual Traits in a Parasitoid Wasp

Divergence in female sexual traits of these two allopatric populations has thus been molded by different forces: independent male/female coevolution while both populations were still sexual, followed by female-only evolution after one population switched to parthenogenesis.

Multiple routes to asexuality in an aphid species

  • F. Delmotte
  • Biology
    Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences
  • 2001
Survey of nuclear, mitochondrial and biological data obtained on cyclical and obligate parthenogens of the bird cherry–oat aphid, Rhopalosiphum padi, yields the strongest evidence to date for multiple origins of asexuality in an aphid.

Single-Locus Recessive Inheritance of Asexual Reproduction in a Parasitoid Wasp

Persistent Copulation in Asexual Female Potamopyrgus antipodarum: Evidence for Male Control with Size-Based Preferences

It is observed that female P. antipodarum take a passive physical role in copulatory interactions, indicating that female behavior may not be a useful variable for detection of sex-related vestigialization in this system.

Evolutionary vestigialization of sex in a clonal plant: selection versus neutral mutation in geographically peripheral populations

It is suggested that selection has facilitated the vestigialization of sex, and that alleles that increase vegetative performance at the expense of sexual fertility are selected in geographically peripheral populations where sexual reproduction is suppressed by adverse environmental conditions.

The loss of sex in clonal plants

Wide variation in genotypic diversity and gene flow associated with the loss of sex may constrain local adaptation and the evolution of the geographical range limit in clonal plants.

Reevolution of sexuality breaks Dollo's law

Oribatid mites are presented as a unique model system to explore the evolutionary significance of parthenogenetic and sexual reproduction and phylogenetic analyses of this study and model-based reconstruction of ancestral states of reproduction imply that Crotoniidae have reevolved sexuality from parthensogenetic ancestors within one of those clusters.

Widespread loss of sexually selected traits: how the peacock lost its spots

EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF CONTAGIOUS ASEXUALITY IN DAPHNIA PULEX

The evolutionary history of asexual lineages of Daphnia pulex are investigated, which are derived from sexual relatives via the inheritance of a dominant female-limited meiosis-suppressing locus and inhabit ponds throughout northeastern North America.
...