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5 - Adaptive significance of egg size variation of aquatic organisms in relation to mesoscale features of aquatic environments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2011

By
Kinya Nishimura  and
Noboru Hoshino
Edited by
Tatsuya Togashi  and
Paul Alan Cox
Kinya Nishimura
Affiliation:
Hokkaido University, Hakodate, Japan
Noboru Hoshino
Affiliation:
Hokkaido Central Fisheries Experimental Station, Yoichi, Japan
Tatsuya Togashi
Affiliation:
Chiba University, Japan
Paul Alan Cox
Affiliation:
Institute for Ethnomedicine
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Summary

INTRODUCTION

Following evolution of sexual reproduction, which was most likely characterized by the transition from isogamy (equal-sized gametes) to anisogamy (different-sized gametes) and oogamy (large immotile gametes, eggs, and small motile gametes, sperm), a secondary characteristic related to fertilization resulted in the diversification of the life-history traits of organisms (Parker and Tang-Martinez, 2005; Kokko and Jennions, 2008). An understanding of sexual and reproductive characteristics of organisms is an important aspect of the study of life-history evolution. Various questions arise concerning the evolutionary diversification including sex-specific behaviors and morphologies just before and after mating and the fusion of gametes (Andersson, 1994; Danchin et al., 2008).

Size variations – between different gamete types as well as within the same gamete type – evoke questions about the selective pressures on those variations. For example, comparison of + and − type gametes in green algae raises a fundamental question: what selective forces drive gamete size differentiation, and what forces maintain observed size differences between the two types of gametes that unite to create the zygote (Randerson and Hurst, 2001a; 2001b; Togashi et al., 2007; Iyer and Roughgarden, 2008)? One of the most influential explanations for patterns of gamete size distribution comes from game theory, using a model that incorporates the mechanism of disruptive selection (Parker et al., 1972).

Type
Chapter
Information
The Evolution of Anisogamy
A Fundamental Phenomenon Underlying Sexual Selection
 , pp. 131 - 167
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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