Organisms with sexual and asexual reproductive systems benefit from both types of reproduction. Sexual recombination generates new combinations of alleles, whereas clonality favours the spread of the fittest genotype through the entire population. Therefore, the rate of sexual vs. clonal reproduction has a major influence on the demography and genetic structure of natural populations. We addressed the effect of reproductive sy...

Independent lines of evidence support an Australian origin for the Mediterranean populations of the tropical alga Caulerpa taxifolia . To complement previous biogeographical studies based on nuclear rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS), a new chloroplast marker was developed — the cp 16S rDNA intron‐2. Sequence variability for both nuclear and chloroplast markers were assessed in 110 individuals using single strand conformat...

The accidental introduction of Caulerpa taxifolia into the Mediterranean is no longer under dispute. What has eluded researchers until now, is definitive evidence for the original, biogeographical source population. Here we present two independent lines of evidence that support an Australian origin for the Mediterranean populations of C. taxifolia . First, we reanalysed algal rDNA‐internal transcribed spacer (rDNA‐ITS) sequenc...

The random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique was employed in the haplo‐diploid dioecious species Gracilaria gracilis to identify sex‐linked PCR markers. Sixty‐nine decamer oligonucleotide primers were tested on two bulks of DNA, one from five haploid males and the other from five haploid females. One of these primers (OPD13) generated a 430‐bp fragment specific to males and a 620‐bp fragment specific to females. The d...