Ref ID : 105
Esther (wajc)Lubzens and G. Minkoff; Influence of the age of algae fed to rotifers (Brachionus plicatilis O.F. Muller) on the expression of mixis in their progenies. Oecologia (Berlin) 75:430-435, 1988
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The sequence of the appearance of mixis in the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis was followed among the descendents of amictic rotifers transferred from a high salinity media (40S) to a low one (9S). All the neonates that hatced from the amictic eggs, after being transferred to a low salinity, were amictic. Each one of these neonates was cultured individually and its offspring removed periodically every 8-10 hr. It was observed that throughout their potential to produced neonates developed into amictic females, but among those produced later, three patterns were prevalent. The prevalent pattern (type A) was one in which the probability of a neonate being mictic increased towards the middle of the parents' reproductive phase and was followed by a slow decline. In the second pattern (type B), the probability of a daughter being mictic was constant throughout the parents' reproductive phase, except for the initial neonates produced. In type C, mixis was at the end of the parents' reproductive phase. It is suspected that the quality of food supplied to the rotifers determines the appearance of patterns, A, B or C. It is postulated that the neonate capacity of rotifers to undergo mixis is genetically controlled, while its expression is modulated by environmental conditions.