Hybridization and the Origin of Contagious Asexuality in Daphnia pulex.

ABSTRACT: Hybridization plays a potentially important role in the origin of obligate parthenogenesis (OP) in many organisms. However, it remains controversial whether hybridization directly triggers the transition from sexual reproduction to obligate asexuality or a hybrid genetic background enables asexual species to persist. Furthermore, we know little about the specific genetic elements from the divergent, yet still hybridizing lineages responsible for this transition and how these elements are further spread to create other OP lineages. In this study, we address these questions in Daphnia pulex, where cyclically parthenogenetic (CP) and OP lineages coexist. Ancestry estimates and whole-genome association mapping using 32 OP isolates suggest that a complex hybridization history between the parent

SUBMITTER: Xu S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4840848 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature