First empirical evidence of naturally occurring androgenesis in vertebrates
Miguel Morgado-Santos, Sara Carona, Luís Vicente, Maria João Collares-Pereira
Published 24 May 2017.DOI: 10.1098/rsos.170200
Abstract
Androgenesis among vertebrates is considered a rare phenomenon, with some cases reported so far, but linked to experiments involving gamete manipulation (artificial androgenesis). Herein, we report the first empirical evidence of the natural occurrence of spontaneous androgenesis in a vertebrate, the Squalius alburnoides allopolyploid complex. A genetically screened random sample of a natural population was allowed to reproduce in an isolated pond without any human interference, and the viable offspring obtained was later analysed for paternity. Both nuclear and mitochondrial markers showed that the only allodiploid fish found among all the allotriploid offspring was androgenetically produced by an allodiploid male. This specimen had no female nuclear genomic input, and the sequence of the mitochondrial fragment examined differed from that of the male progenitor, matching one of the parental females available in the pond, probably the mother. The possible role of androgenesis in the reproductive dynamics of this highly successful vertebrate complex is discussed.
Authors' contributions
Conception and design: M.M.-S., L.V. and M.J.C.-P. Acquisition of data: M.M.-S. and S.C. Analysis and interpretation of data: M.M.-S., S.C. and M.J.C.-P. Drafting the article: M.M.-S. Revising the article critically: S.C. and M.J.C.-P. Final approval of the version to be published: M.M.-S., S.C., L.V. and M.J.C.-P.
Competing interests
We have no competing interests.
Funding
This work was supported by Portuguese National Funds, through Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) (project nos UID/BIA/00329/2013, PEstOE/BIA/UI0329/2014; grant no. SFRH/BD/65154/2009).
Acknowledgements
We thank I. Cowx for language revision and comments to an earlier version, M. A. Aboim for help with microsatellite genotyping, and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful recommendations. We also thank the ICNF for authorizing fish sampling and use in experimental trials.
Footnotes
Electronic supplementary material is available online at https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3780131.
Received March 3, 2017.
Accepted April 27, 2017.
© 2017 The Authors.
Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
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