Mixed‐sex offspring produced via cryptic parthenogenesis in a lizard

Facultative parthenogenesis in vertebrates is believed to be exceptional, and wherever documented, it always led to single‐sex progeny with genome‐wide homozygosity. We report the first challenge to this paradigm: frequent facultative parthenogenesis in the previously assumed sexually reproducing tr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecular ecology 2020-11, Vol.29 (21), p.4118-4127
Main Authors: Kratochvíl, Lukáš, Vukić, Jasna, Červenka, Jan, Kubička, Lukáš, Johnson Pokorná, Martina, Kukačková, Dominika, Rovatsos, Michail, Piálek, Lubomír
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ddRAD sequencing
facultative parthenogenesis
Females
Genomes
Heterozygosity
Homozygosity
Lizards
Offspring
Parthenogenesis
Progeny
reproduction
Reproduction (biology)
reptiles
Sex
sexual dimorphism
Vertebrates
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Summary:Facultative parthenogenesis in vertebrates is believed to be exceptional, and wherever documented, it always led to single‐sex progeny with genome‐wide homozygosity. We report the first challenge to this paradigm: frequent facultative parthenogenesis in the previously assumed sexually reproducing tropical night lizard Lepidophyma smithii results in offspring of both sexes and preserves heterozygosity in many loci polymorphic in their mothers. Moreover, we documented a mixture of sexually and parthenogenetically produced progeny in a single clutch, which documents how cryptic a facultative parthenogenesis can be. Next, we show that in the studied species, 1) parthenogenetically produced females can further reproduce parthenogenetically, 2) a sexually produced female can reproduce parthenogenetically, 3) a parthenogenetically produced female can reproduce sexually, and 4) a parthenogenetically produced male is fully fertile. We suggest that facultative parthenogenesis should be considered even in vertebrates with frequent males and genetically variable, heterozygous offspring.
ISSN:0962-1083
1365-294X
DOI:10.1111/mec.15617