Transgenerational effect on sexual reproduction in rotifer populations in relation to the environmental predictability of their habitats (Q6709954)

Understanding the processes that enable adaptation oforganisms to time-varying environments is critically relevant in evolutionary ecology. A way to cope with environmental fluctuations wherepredictable conditions affect several generations of individuals isthrough non-genetic transgenerational effects. The phenotype ofancestors affects the phenotype of their descendants matching itwith the expected environment of the latter. Facultatively sexualrotifers inhabiting water bodies that cover a wide gradient ofenvironmental predictability in Eastern Spain are a good study model for this topic. Intheir life cycle sex is linked to diapausing-egg production that enables survival between growing seasons. In several rotiferspecies, sexual reproduction is inhibited in several generations after diapausing-egg hatching. We hypothesized that in ponds where the growingseason length is more predictable, rotifer clones proliferate asexuallylonger, hence allowing a fuller exploitation of the growing season andtherefore maximize diapausing-egg production by the end of the season. We tested this prediction by estimating the proportion of sexual females produced by eight clones of the rotifer Brachionusplicatilis inhabiting eight ponds (8x8= 64 clones) from our study system. Here, we present the raw data gathered from the experiment.