Retenção de longo termo de autofertilização num clade de peixes

Long-term retention of self-fertilization in a fish clade

Andrey Tatarenkova, Sergio M. Q. Limab, D. Scott Taylorc and John C. Avisea,1

+ Author Affiliations

aDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697;

bLaboratório de Biodiversidade Molecular, Departamento de Genética, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, CEP 21941-901, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and

cBrevard County Environmentally Endangered Lands Program, Melbourne, FL 32904

Contributed by John C. Avise, July 14, 2009 (sent for review May 10, 2009)

Abstract

Among vertebrate animals, only the mangrove rivulus (Kryptolebias marmoratus) was known to self-fertilize. Here, we use microsatellite analyses to document a high selfing rate (97%) in a related nominal species, Kryptolebias ocellatus, which likewise is androdioecious (populations consist of males and hermaphrodites). In contrast, we find no evidence of self-fertilization in Kryptolebias caudomarginatus (an androdioecious species closely related to the marmoratus-ocellatus clade) or in Kryptolebias brasiliensis (a dioecious outgroup). These findings indicate that the initiation of self-fertilization predated the origin of the marmoratus-ocellatus clade. From mitochondrial DNA sequences and microsatellite data, we document a substantial genetic distance between Kryptolebias marmoratus and K. ocellatus, implying that the selfing capacity has persisted in these fishes for at least several hundred thousand years.

androdioecy hermaphroditism mangrove killifish mating systems reproductive modes

Footnotes

1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: javise@uci.edu

Author contributions: A.T. and J.C.A. designed research; A.T., S.M.Q.L., and D.S.T. performed research; S.M.Q.L. and D.S.T. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; A.T. analyzed data; and A.T. and J.C.A. wrote the paper.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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