Factors affecting fission in a colonial ascidian

PEMBERTON, A. J.; BISHOP, J. D. D.; Marine Biological Association of the UK; Marine Biological Association of the UK: Factors affecting fission in a colonial ascidian

Colony fission is an integral part of the life history of many modular organisms, allowing a single gentic individual to exist as two or more spatially discrete sub-colonies. This work documents the rate of colony fission following an extensive series of pairwise reciprocal crosses between genetic individuals from three populations of the colonial ascidian, Diplosoma listerianum. A series of further experiments looked at environmental factors that may trigger this important life history attribute.

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