Inbreeding effects on competition inTribolium |
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Authors: | David M Craig and David B Mertz |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Natural Sciences, Rosary College, 60305 River Forest, Illinois, U.S.A.;(2) Department of Biological Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. |
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Abstract: | When replicate cultures ofT. confusum andT. castaneum are husbanded together under identical treatment conditions, sometimesT. confusum eliminatesT. castaneum, and other times,T. castaneum wins (i.e., competitive indeterminacy occurs). While several plausible explanations were advanced, the results of Mertz et
al. (1976) implicated demographic stochasticity and not classical genetic founder effect as the predominant factor influencing
the identity of the winning species. They also observed, however, that the size of the founding population had an influence
on the competitive strength ofT. castaneum. The present study shows that the decline in competitive strength that accompanied decreasing founder size inT. castaneum can be amply explained by simple inbreeding depression. The eggs of inbred adults showed an approximate 15% reduction in
hatchability when compared to outbred adults. No evidence was found that the decrease in competitive strength was due either
to prior history differences or reduced genetic heterogeneity of the founding adults. |
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Keywords: | inbreeding depression competitive indeterminacy demographic stochasticity Tribolium |
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