Bdelloid Rotifers: Progress in Understanding the Success of an Evolutionary Scandal
Bdelloid Rotifers: Progress in Understanding the Success of an Evolutionary Scandal
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蛭形轮虫：理解进化丑闻成功的进展
DOI：
10.1007/978-90-481-2770-2_13
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发表时间：
2009
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
M. Meselson
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
D. Welch;C. Ricci;M. Meselson
尽管有相当多的关注，是什么驱使无性种群灭绝，并允许维持有性生殖仍然是一个谜。蛭形轮虫似乎是一个例外的一般规则，放弃性的多细胞真核生物注定要早灭绝，和他们的生物学的理解可能会揭示他们如何避免了其他无性系的命运。在这里，我们讨论了蛭形轮虫的生态学，生理学和基因组进化方面，可能有助于他们的进化成功。我们建议，蛭形目动物的许多不寻常的特点来自他们的适应干燥的栖息地，但也可能有助于他们的长期成功，在没有有性生殖。然而，关于这些特征和蛭形类的基本生物学仍然存在许多未解之谜。种群遗传学和分子生态学是下一代研究的有前途的方法，使用这个模型系统提供答案的问题，如何以及为什么性是植物和动物的繁殖的主要形式。
Despite considerable attention, what drives asexual populations to extinction and allows the maintenance of sexual reproduction remains a mystery. Bdelloid rotifers appear to be an exception to the general rule that multicellular eukaryotes that abandon sex are doomed to early extinction, and an understanding of their biology may reveal how they have avoided the fate of other asexual lineages. Here, we discuss aspects of the ecology, physiology, and genome evolution of bdelloid rotifers that may contribute to their evolutionary success. We propose that many of the unusual characteristics of bdelloids derive from their adaptation to desiccation-prone habitats but may also contribute to their long-term success in the absence of sexual reproduction. However, many unanswered questions about these characteristics and the basic biology of bdelloids remain. Population genetics and molecular ecology are promising approaches for the next generation of studies using this model system to provide answers to the questions of how and why sex is the dominant form of reproduction in plants and animals.