Venom Complexity in a Pitviper Produced by Facultative Parthenogenesis.

ABSTRACT: Facultative parthenogenesis (FP) is asexual reproduction in plant and animal species that would otherwise reproduce sexually. This process in vertebrates typically results from automictic development (likely terminal fusion) and is phylogenetically widespread. In squamate reptiles and chondrichthyan fishes, FP has been reported to occur in nature and can result in the production of reproductively viable offspring; suggesting that it is of ecological and evolutionary significance. However, terminal fusion automixis is believed to result in near genome-wide reductions in heterozygosity; thus, FP seems likely to affect key phenotypic characters, yet this remains almost completely unstudied. Snake venom is a complex phenotypic character primarily used to subjugate prey and is thus tightly link

SUBMITTER: Calvete JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6070573 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature