Affiliation:
1. Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, 25 Harbord Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3G5, Canada.
Abstract
In light of the inherent disadvantages of sexual reproduction, the existence of sex is often seen as a paradox. There are a variety of hypothetical benefits of sexual reproduction that may balance its disadvantages. The Red Queen hypothesis proposes that sexually reproducing species are better able to evolve resistance to parasites than asexually reproducing species. A prediction of the Red Queen hypothesis is that a parasite should evolve to preferentially exploit an asexual species over a sexual species. To test this central prediction of the Red Queen hypothesis, intensity of infection by the parasite Gyrodactylus eos Mayes, 1977 (Monogenea) was compared between sympatric asexual and sexual fish species in the genus Phoxinus Rafinesque, 1820. In each lake where these species coexist, the asexual fish should suffer higher intensities of infection than the sexual fish. In the majority of lakes sampled, there were more parasites on asexual than sexual fish.
Publisher
Canadian Science Publishing
Subject
Animal Science and Zoology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Cited by
29 articles.
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