Gómez Africa, Carmona María José, Serra Manuel
Departament de Microbiologia i Ecologia, Universitat de València, E-46100 Burjassot, Valencia, Spain Fax: (+346) 386 43 72; e-mail:
Oecologia. 1997 Jul;111(3):350-356. doi: 10.1007/s004420050245.
We investigated how adaptation to salinity and temperature acts as reproductive barriers in three sympatric species from the Brachionus plicatilis species complex. These species co-occur in a salt marsh in Spain, and a previous electrophoretic study of variation revealed no hybrids between them. A factorial experiment was designed to test for differences in population growth rates and patterns of bisexual reproduction. The design combined representative strains from each species in different salinity and temperature conditions, representing the range over which these rotifers are found in their natural environment. We found differences in the growth response of the three species to both factors and in the pattern of bisexual reproduction. These differences help to explain patterns of succession observed in the field. We conclude that these ecological factors, together with mate recognition systems, account for the absence of gene flow in these sympatric species.
我们研究了在褶皱臂尾轮虫物种复合体的三个同域物种中，对盐度和温度的适应性如何作为生殖屏障。这些物种共同存在于西班牙的一个盐沼中，先前一项关于变异的电泳研究表明它们之间没有杂交种。设计了一项析因实验来测试种群增长率和两性生殖模式的差异。该设计将来自每个物种的代表性品系置于不同的盐度和温度条件下，这些条件代表了这些轮虫在其自然环境中的分布范围。我们发现这三个物种对这两个因素的生长反应以及两性生殖模式存在差异。这些差异有助于解释在野外观察到的演替模式。我们得出结论，这些生态因素与配偶识别系统共同导致了这些同域物种中基因流的缺失。
