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Maintenance of androdioecy in the freshwater shrimp, Eulimnadia texana: do hermaphrodites need males for complete fertilization?

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Abstract

Androdioecy (populations comprised of mixtures of males and hermaphrodites) is a rare mating system, found only in a few plants and animals. The rarity of this system stems from the limited benefits to males in an otherwise all-hermaphroditic population. One of the potential benefits to males is typified by the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, in which hermaphrodites do not produce sufficient sperm to fertilize all of their eggs. Here we explore the possibility that males are needed for complete fertilization of hermaphrodites' eggs in a second androdioecious animal, the clam shrimp Eulimnadia texana. We compare the fertilization rate of outcrossed to selfed eggs to test whether the latter exhibit lower fertilization due to sperm limitation (as in C. elegans). Because this comparison confounds differences in egg fertilization due to sperm limitation with the potential for early inbreeding depression, we also used a third mating treatment, a brother/sister cross, to allow separation of sperm limitation from inbreeding depression. In both populations examined, the proportion of eggs that were fertilized decreased linearly with increasing relatedness: comparing eggs produced by outcrossing, brother/sister, and selfed matings, respectively. This pattern suggests that differences in fertilization among these three treatments were caused solely by inbreeding depression, and therefore that hermaphrodites are not sperm limited. These results are combined with previous data on this species to test whether the maintenance of males can be explained using a population genetics model specifically designed for this species.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Program in Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, Department of Biology, The University of Akron, Akron, OH, 44325-3908, USA

    Stephen C. Weeks

  2. Program in Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, Department of Biology, The University of Akron, Akron, OH, 44325-3908, USA

    Julie A. Hutchison

  3. Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, 88003-8001, USA

    Naida Zucker

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  1. Stephen C. Weeks
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  2. Julie A. Hutchison
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  3. Naida Zucker
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Weeks, S.C., Hutchison, J.A. & Zucker, N. Maintenance of androdioecy in the freshwater shrimp, Eulimnadia texana: do hermaphrodites need males for complete fertilization?. Evolutionary Ecology 15, 205–221 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014878521117

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