reproductive flexibility genetic variation, genetic costs and long-term evolution in a collembola生殖灵活性遗传变异、遗传弹尾目成本和长期演进.pdfVIP

Reproductive Flexibility: Genetic Variation, Genetic Costs and Long-Term Evolution in a Collembola 1,2 ´ ` 1,3 Thomas Tully *, Regis Ferriere ´ ´ ´ ` ´ 1 Laboratoire Fonctionnement et Evolution des Systemes Ecologiques, CNRS UMR 7625, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, France, 2 Institut Universitaire de Formation des ˆ ´ Maitres, Universite Paris 4, Paris, France, 3 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America Abstract In a variable yet predictable world, organisms may use environmental cues to make adaptive adjustments to their phenotype. Such phenotypic flexibility is expected commonly to evolve in life history traits, which are closely tied to Darwinian fitness. Yet adaptive life history flexibility remains poorly documented. Here we introduce the collembolan Folsomia candida, a soil-dweller, parthenogenetic (all-female) microarthropod, as a model organism to study the phenotypic expression, genetic variation, fitness consequences and long-term evolution of life history flexibility. We demonstrate that collembola have a remarkable adaptive ability for adjusting their reproductive phenotype: when transferred from harsh to good conditions (in terms of food ration and crowding), a mother can fine-tune the number and the size of her eggs from one clutch to the next. The comparative analysis of eleven clonal populations of worldwide origins reveals (i) genetic variation in mean egg size under both good and bad conditions; (ii) no genetic variation in egg