Abstract: Many species, ranging from bacteria to trees and vertebrates, survive stressful environmental periods in dormancy or diapause (a specific kind of dormancy). Dormancy often lasts only about as long as the duration of harsh conditions, enabling a species׳ persistence until the arrival of the next favorable period. "Prolonged dormancy", in contrast, can last long enough for multiple generations to have occurred in the active life-history stage. A variety of molecular mechanisms that initiate, maintain and terminate dormancy exist across the diversity of taxa, and their genetic regulation is a topic of current research. Prolonged dormancy allows species to disperse in time or in space and can have significant fitness benefits. Prolonged dormancy has important implications for the maintenance of biodiversity through fostering the coexistence of multiple competing species within a community or maintaining multiple genotypes within a species.
Publication Year: 2024
Publication Date: 2024-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 1
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