Evolutionary ecology of parthenogenetic organisms: general-purpose genotype and DNA-repair.

Persistent parthenogenetic organisms are doomed to extinction through increase of the mutation load. However the ostracod family Darwinulidae reproduces asexually for at least 100 Myr. The type Darwinula stevensoni for at least 25 Myr. This is therefore an interesting studygroup to understand the long-term persistence of asexuals. The most likely hypotheses to explain the persistence of Darwinula stevensoni is that it has a "general-pupose genotype and that this genotype is kept intact by an efficient DNA-repairmechanism. This will be tested experimentally, the GPG study is started.