MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA ANALYSES AND THE ORIGIN AND RELATIVE AGE OF PARTHENOGENETIC LIZARDS (GENUS CNEMIDOPHORUS). II. C. NEOMEXICANUS AND THE C. TESSELATUS COMPLEX

Clonal diversity and clone formation in the parthenogenetic Caucasian rock lizard Darevskia dahlia

The all-female Caucasian rock lizard species Darevskia dahli and other parthenogenetic species of this genus reproduce normally via true parthenogenesis. Previously, the genetic diversity of this species was analyzed using allozymes, mitochondrial DNA, and DNA fingerprint markers. In the present study, variation at three microsatellite loci was studied in 111 specimens of D. dahli from five populations from Armenia, and new information regarding clonal diversity and clone formation in D. dahli was obtained that suggests a multiple hybridization origin. All individuals but one were heterozygous at the loci studied. Based on specific allele combinations, 11 genotypes were identified among the individuals studied. Individuals with the same genotypes formed distinct clonal lineages: one major clone was represented by 72 individuals, an intermediate clone was represented by 21 individuals, and nine other clones were rare and represented by one or several individuals. A new approach based on the detection and comparison of genotype-specific markers formed by combinations of parental-specific markers was developed and used to identify at least three hybridization founder events that resulted in the initial formation of one major and two rare clones. All other clones, including the intermediate and seven rare clones, probably arose through postformation microsatellite mutations of the major clone. This approach can be used to identify hybridization founder events and to study clone formation in other unisexual taxa.

Phylogeography of competing sexual and parthenogenetic forms of a freshwater flatworm: patterns and explanations

BACKGROUND

Models of the maintenance of sex predict that one reproductive strategy, sexual or parthenogenetic, should outcompete the other. Distribution patterns may reflect the outcome of this competition as well as the effect of chance and historical events. We review the distribution data of sexual and parthenogenetic biotypes of the planarian Schmidtea polychroa.

RESULTS

S. polychroa lives in allopatry or sympatry across Europe except for Central and North-Western Europe, where sexual individuals have never been reported. A phylogenetic relationship between 36 populations based on a 385 bp fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene revealed that haplotypes were often similar over large geographic distances. In North Italian lakes, however, diversity was extreme, with sequence differences of up to 5% within the same lake in both sexuals and parthenogens. Mixed populations showed "endemic" parthenogenetic lineages that presumably originated from coexisting sexuals, and distantly related ones that probably result from colonization by parthenogens independent from sexuals.

CONCLUSIONS

Parthenogens originated repeatedly from sexuals, mainly in Italy, but the same may apply to other Mediterranean regions (Spain, Greece). The degree of divergence between populations suggests that S. polychroa survived the ice ages in separate ice-free areas in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe and re-colonised Europe after the retreat of the major glaciers. Combining these results with those based on nuclear markers, the data suggest that repeated hybridisation between sexuals and parthenogenetic lineages in mixed populations maintains high levels of genetic diversity in parthenogens. This can explain why parthenogens persist in populations that were originally sexual. Exclusive parthenogenesis in central and western populations suggests better colonisation capacity, possibly because of inbreeding costs as well as hybridisation of sexuals with parthenogens.