Elferra Swart

Selected Publications

Dorrepaal, E., Toet, S., van Logtestijn, R.S.P., Swart, E., van de Weg, M.J., Callaghan, T.V.b & Aerts, R. (2009) Carbon respiration from subsurface peat accelerated by climate warming in the subarctic. Nature 460: 616-U79.

Research project

Evolutionary signatures of sexual conflict in hermaphrodites: Reproductive morphology and semen composition

Sexual encounters are usually accompanied by conflicts of interest between the mating partners. In animals with separate sexes such sexual conflicts can play a crucial role in the evolution of reproductive systems, and can even lead to speciation. Conflict arises when male strategies evolve that enhance the chances of fertilisation, but at the same time reduce the reproductive potential of the female partner. That such conflicts also occur in simultaneous hermaphrodites may seem less obvious. After all, simultaneous hermaphrodites are male and female at the same time and especially for that reason potential conflicts have long been overlooked. However, recent research has revealed that sexual conflicts can occur and may even take more extreme forms that in species with separate sexes. Upon copulation, the hermaphroditic pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis transfers, next to sperm, seminal fluid components that influence the partner's egg laying. Recent work has established that this may form the basis for a sexual conflict in this simultaneous hermaphrodite. The responsible peptide in the seminal fluid has recently been fully characterised, thus opening the way to study the evolution of such an allohormone and the accompanying reproductive morphology. We aim to investigate these evolutionary patterns in detail in the freshwater snails (Basommatophora), using them as a model for hermaphrodites in general. We therefore expect this research to provide an essential and novel contribution to the understanding of the implications of sexual conflict for the evolution of simultaneous hermaphrodites.



picture copyrights: C. Levesque

Participants:
Elferra Swart, Joris Koene, Dick Roelofs, Nico van Straalen, Jacintha Ellers