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EVOLUTIONARY ORIGIN OF A PARTHENOFORM, THE AMAZON MOLLY POECILIA FORMOSA , ON THE BASIS OF A MOLECULAR GENEALOGY
Author(s) -
Schartl Manfred,
Wilde Brigitta,
Schlupp Ingo,
Parzefall Jakob
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1558-5646.1995.tb02319.x
Subject(s) - biology , poecilia , phylogenetic tree , evolutionary biology , vertebrate , subspecies , zoology , genetics , gene , fish <actinopterygii> , fishery
The appearance of vertebrate species that reproduce without genetic recombination has been explained by their origin from a rare hybridization event between members of two distantly related species. For the first recognized vertebrate unisexual, the Amazon molly Poecilia formosa , mostly morphological and biochemical genetic information has been available so far with respect to its evolutionary origin. DNA sequence analyses of transcribed portions of the genome (tyrosine kinase proto‐oncogenes) demonstrated its hybrid state unequivocally. Both alleles can be traced in a DNA sequence‐based phylogenetic tree to extant species that represent the parental species or that are closely related to the corresponding extinct forms, namely P. mexicana limantouri and a so far taxonomically ill‐defined north Mexican subspecies of the P. latipinna/P. velifera complex. A rough estimate from the mutation rates dates the hybridization event further back than would have been predicted on the basis of “Muller's ratchet” for an ecologically successful species.