ENZYME VARIABILITY IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF DAPHNIA MAGNA III. GENOTYPIC FREQUENCIES IN INTERMITTENT POPULATIONS

Paul D. N. Hebert ¹

¹ School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

In temporary habitats populations of the cyclical parthenogen, Daphnia magna, are re-established each year from sexual eggs and reproduce parthenogenetically for two or at most three generations. The genetic effects of this breeding system have been investigated by analyzing allozyme frequencies in nineteen intermittent populations.—Genotypic frequencies at polymorphic loci were ordinarily found to be in good agreement with Hardy-Weinberg proportions and disequilibria between loci were not observed. Although significant changes in gene frequencies were observed both during and between successive cycles, there was no evidence of the marked instability of genotype frequencies characteristic of permanent populations. The recombinational degradation of genotypes at the end of each annual cycle in temporary habitats effectively prevents the genotypic structuring which develops when continued parthenogenesis is possible.

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