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Mixed‐sex offspring produced via cryptic parthenogenesis in a lizard
Author(s) -
Kratochvíl Lukáš,
Vukić Jasna,
Červenka Jan,
Kubička Lukáš,
Johnson Pokorná Martina,
Kukačková Dominika,
Rovatsos Michail,
Piálek Lubomír
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
molecular ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.619
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1365-294X
pISSN - 0962-1083
DOI - 10.1111/mec.15617
Subject(s) - parthenogenesis , biology , facultative , offspring , lizard , zoology , apomixis , asexuality , evolutionary biology , genetics , ecology , ploidy , embryo , human sexuality , pregnancy , gender studies , sociology , gene
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.