WHY IS PARTHENOGENESIS COMMON ON ISLANDS?

CASUAL SEMINAR IN BIODIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION

The study of asexual reproduction is a core issue in evolutionary biology. One of the reasons for this is that, in spite of the two-fold cost of sex, the asexual reproduction is uncommon among most animal taxa. Even so, it is supposed that asexual reproduction is comparatively more common on islands than on mainland a phenomenon known as geographical parthenogenesis. A common explanation for this, at least theoretically, is that species with asexual reproduction can colonize islands and establish more easily new populations than their sexual counterparts. Yet, studies on the possible origin and colonization history of asexual taxa on islands are limited. In this seminar this issue will be addressed using Empoasca leafhoppers as model organisms.

Dora Aguín Pombo is an entomologist working at CIBIO-InBIO since 2008. She has a PhD in Biology by the University of Wales (UK) and teaches several disciplines of Biology at the University of Madeira. Her research has been focused mainly on biosystematics studies of several groups of Hemiptera leafhoppers and in the last years she dedicates to study geographical parthenogenesis on islands using as model organisms Empoasca leafhoppers. In the scope of her work she has done field work in the Macaronesia archipelagoes (Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands and Cape Verde), Iberian Peninsula, Morocco and Greece.

[Host: Nuno Ferrand de Almeida, Population Genetics, Hybridization and Speciation]

Image credits: Dora Aguín Pombo