How clonal are clones? A quest for loss of heterozygosity during asexual reproduction in
            Daphnia magna

Why is sex ubiquitous when asexual reproduction is much less costly? Sex disrupts coadapted gene complexes; it also causes costs associated with mate finding and the production of males who do not themselves bear offspring. Theory predicts parasites select for host sex, because genetically variable offspring can escape infection from parasites adapted to infect the previous generations. We examine this using a facultative sexual crustacean, Daphnia magna, and its sterilizing bacterial parasite, Pasteuria ramosa . We obtained sexually and asexually produced offspring from wild-caught hosts and exposed them to contemporary parasites or parasites isolated from the same population one year later. We found rapid parasite adaptation to replicate within asexual but not sexual offspring. Moreover, sexually produced offspring were twice as resistant to infection as asexuals when exposed to parasites that had coevolved alongside their parents (i.e. the year two parasite). This fulfils the requirement that the benefits of sex must be both large and rapid for sex to be favoured by selection.

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Membrane-bound vesicles associated with the microvilli in the midgut of the freshwater microcrustacean, Daphnia magna

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100076135 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 41 ◽

pp. 480-481

Author(s):

Patricia L. Jansma

Keyword(s):

Daphnia Magna ◽

Intestinal Epithelial Cells ◽

Uranyl Acetate ◽

Intestinal Epithelial ◽

Chlamydomonas Reinhardii ◽

Thin Sections ◽

Saturated Water ◽

Cacodylate Buffer ◽

Membrane Bound ◽

Ethanol Series

The presence of the membrane bound vesicles or blebs on the intestinal epithelial cells has been demonstrated in a variety of vertebrates such as chicks, piglets, hamsters, and humans. The only invertebrates shown to have these microvillar blebs are two species of f1ies. While investigating the digestive processes of the freshwater microcrustacean, Daphnia magna, the presence of these microvillar blebs was noticed.Daphnia magna fed in a suspension of axenically grown green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardii for one hour were narcotized with CO2 saturated water. The intestinal tracts were excised in 2% glutaraldehyde in 0.2 M cacodyl ate buffer and then placed in fresh 2% glutaraldehyde for one hour. After rinsing in 0.1 M cacodylate buffer, the sample was postfixed in 2% OsO4, dehydrated with a graded ethanol series, infiltrated and embedded with Epon-Araldite. Thin sections were stained with uranyl acetate and Reynolds lead citrate before viewing with the Philips EM 200.

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Computer Reconstruction of the Cellular Architecture of the Daphnia Magna Optic Ganglion

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100115043 ◽

1975 ◽

Vol 33 ◽

pp. 284-285

Author(s):

E. R. Macagno ◽

C. Levinthal

Keyword(s):

Daphnia Magna ◽

Genetic Background ◽

Compound Eye ◽

Synaptic Connectivity ◽

Serial Sections ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Small Crustacean ◽

Optic Ganglion ◽

Structural Invariance ◽

High Degree

The optic ganglion of Daphnia Magna, a small crustacean that reproduces parthenogenetically contains about three hundred neurons: 110 neurons in the Lamina or anterior region and about 190 neurons in the Medulla or posterior region. The ganglion lies in the midplane of the organism and shows a high degree of left-right symmetry in its structures. The Lamina neurons form the first projection of the visual output from 176 retinula cells in the compound eye. In order to answer questions about structural invariance under constant genetic background, we have begun to reconstruct in detail the morphology and synaptic connectivity of various neurons in this ganglion from electron micrographs of serial sections (1). The ganglion is sectioned in a dorso-ventra1 direction so as to minimize the cross-sectional area photographed in each section. This area is about 60 μm x 120 μm, and hence most of the ganglion fit in a single 70 mm micrograph at the lowest magnification (685x) available on our Zeiss EM9-S.

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