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JPR Advance Access originally published online on November 22, 2005
Journal of Plankton Research 2005 27(12):1287-1293; doi:10.1093/plankt/fbi094
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Genetic diversity and polyploidy in the cosmopolitan asexual ostracod Cypris pubera

Tom J. Little

Max-Planck Institut für Limnologie, August–Thienemann-Straße 2, 24306 Plön, Plön, Germany
Present Address: Institute for Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Kings Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, Scotland

Corresponding Author: tom.little{at}ed.ac.uk

Received June 6, 2005; accepted in principle July 26, 2005; accepted for publication October 27, 2005; published online November 22, 2005
Communicating editor: K.J. Flym

Freshwater ostracods show extensive breeding system variation, but both the cause of breeding system transitions, and the origins of genotypic diversity in asexuals, have yet to be convincingly explained. The study reports on the genotypic (based on allozyme electrophoresis) characteristics of Northern European populations of the globally distributed ostracod Cypris pubera. No male has ever been described for C. pubera, and none were found in this study. Genotypic profiles indicated deviations from Hardy–Weinberg (HW) equilibrium, confirming that C. pubera reproduces through ameiotic parthenogenesis, that is, the production of female offspring where the formation of ova is through a mitotic process. Cypris pubera seems to be comprised of diploid clones that are brown in colour and a series of polyploid clones that are green. The two morphs often occurred in sympatry, but the green morph was considerably more diverse than the brown. The factors which contribute to asexual diversity or elevated ploidy levels in other taxa, such as hybridization, do not appear to be important for C. pubera. Thus, this study has established a link between polyploidy and genetic diversity in C. pubera, but the origins of both asexuality and polyploidy remain unclear for this ecologically successful ostracod.


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