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JPR Advance Access originally published online on September 27, 2006
Journal of Plankton Research 2006 28(12):1233-1239; doi:10.1093/plankt/fbl052
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Chemical induction of mixis in the rotifer Synchaeta tremula

Nadine Timmermeyer{dagger} and Claus-Peter Stelzer*,{ddagger}

Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Münster, Hüfferstr 1, 48149 Münster, Germany {dagger} Present Address: Animal Evolutionary Ecology, University of TÜBingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, 72076 Tübingen, Germany {ddagger} Present Address: Institute for Limnology of The Austrian Academy of Sciences, Mondseestrasse 9, 5310 Mondsee, Austria

* Corresponding Author: claus-peter.stelzer{at}oeaw.ac.at

Received on April 12, 2006; revised on August 4, 2006; accepted on September 26, 2006

Communicating editor: R.P. Harris


  Abstract

In rotifers of the genus Brachionus, a chemical factor that accumulates during population crowding is necessary and sufficient to trigger sexual reproduction (mixis). In other monogonont rotifer species, field data and some laboratory studies indicate that mixis is density-dependent; however, to date it is unknown whether this reaction is chemically mediated as in Brachionus. Here we provide experimental evidence that mixis in the rotifer Synchaeta tremula is both density-dependent and chemically mediated. S. tremula cultured at high population densities (10 individual mL–1) produced 15.4% mictic offspring, whereas those cultured at low population densities (0.25 individual mL–1) produced only 0.3% mictic offspring. Conditioned water isolated from exponentially growing mass cultures induced significantly higher levels of mixis in the offspring of individually cultured females, when compared with untreated control medium (15.7 versus 1.4% mixis). In S. tremula, the propensity of females to respond to the mixis chemical decreased strongly with age. The highest proportion of mictic offspring (up to 63%) was produced by females of the youngest adult age class (~24–48 h old). Females older than 3 days were virtually unresponsive to the mixis stimulus.


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