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Differential susceptibility to food stress in neonates of sexual and asexual mollies (Poecilia, Poeciliidae)

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Abstract

The maintenance of sex is still an evolutionary puzzle given its immediate costs. Stably coexisting complexes of asexually and sexually reproducing forms allow to study mechanisms that balance the costs and benefits of both asexual and sexual reproduction. Here, we tested whether coexisting asexual and sexual fish of the genus Poecilia differed in neonate mortality when exposed to environmental stress in the form of fluctuating temperatures and food deprivation. We find that asexual Amazon mollies, Poecilia formosa, are significantly more sensitive to food stress than their sexual relative Poecilia latipinna, but both are equally unaffected by variable temperatures. Differences in the susceptibility to environmental stress may contribute to diminishing the asexuals’ benefits of a higher intrinsic population growth rate and thus mediate stable coexistence of the two reproductive forms.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Tami Thomason and Wendal Porter for technical support. This research project was approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of the University of Oklahoma (AUS R05-014). Texas Parks & Wildlife issued the permit to collect fish (SPR-0305-045). Financial support came from the Basler Foundation for Biological Research, the Janggen-Poehn-Foundation, the Roche Research Foundation, and the Wolfermann-Nägeli-Foundation (to M.T.) as well as the University of Oklahoma Faculty Senate (to I.S.).

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  1. Michael Tobler

    Present address: Department of Biology and Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A&M University, 2258 TAMU, College Station, TX, 77843-2358, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Zoology, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstr. 190, CH-8057, Zürich, Switzerland

    Michael Tobler

  2. Department of Zoology, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK, 73019, USA

    Michael Tobler & Ingo Schlupp

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  1. Michael Tobler
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  2. Ingo Schlupp
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Correspondence to Michael Tobler.

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Tobler, M., Schlupp, I. Differential susceptibility to food stress in neonates of sexual and asexual mollies (Poecilia, Poeciliidae). Evol Ecol 24, 39–47 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-008-9288-7

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