Reticulate evolution in stick insects: the case of Clonopsis (Insecta Phasmida).

ABSTRACT:

Background

Phasmids show noteworthy abilities to overcome species-specific reproductive isolation mechanisms, including hybridization, polyploidy, parthenogenesis, hybridogenesis and androgenesis. From an evolutionary standpoint, such tangled reproductive interactions lead to the complex phyletic relationships known as "reticulate evolution". Moroccan stick insects of the genus Clonopsis include one bisexual (C. felicitatis) and two closely related parthenogenetic forms (C. gallica, C. soumiae), which represent a polyploid series in chromosome number, but with apparent diploid karyotypes. Moreover, two Clonopsis strains of ameiotic males have been described, C. androgenes-35 and C. androgenes-53. As a consequence, Clonopsis stick insects may have experienced complex micro-evolution

SUBMITTER: Milani L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2936309 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature