Parthenogenesis in a captive Asian water dragon (Physignathus cocincinus) identified with novel microsatellites

Kyle L Miller; Susette Castaneda Rico; Carly R Muletz-Wolz; Michael G Campana; Nancy McInerney; Lauren Augustine; Celine H Frere; Alan M Peters; Robert C Fleischer

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0217489

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Parthenogenesis in a captive Asian water dragon (Physignathus cocincinus) identified with novel microsatellites

Journal article

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Peer reviewed

Parthenogenesis in a captive Asian water dragon (Physignathus cocincinus) identified with novel microsatellites

Kyle L Miller, Susette Castaneda Rico, Carly R Muletz-Wolz, Michael G Campana, Nancy McInerney, Lauren Augustine, Celine H Frere, Alan M Peters and Robert C Fleischer

PLoS One, Vol.14(6), e0217489

2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217489

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Abstract

Reptiles show varying degrees of facultative parthenogenesis. Here we use genetic methods to determine that an isolated, captive female Asian water dragon produced at least nine offspring via parthenogenesis. We identified microsatellites for the species from shotgun genomic sequences, selected and optimized primer sets, and tested all of the offspring for a set of seven microsatellites that were heterozygous in the mother. We verified that the seven loci showed high levels of polymorphism in four wild Asian water dragons from Vietnam. In all cases, the offspring (unhatched, but developed eggs, or hatched young) had only a single allele at each locus, and contained only alleles present in the mother's genotype (i.e., were homozygous or hemizygous). The probability that our findings resulted from the female mating with one or more males is extremely small, indicating that the offspring were derived from a single female gamete (either alone or via duplication and/or fusion) and implicating parthenogenesis. This is the first documented case of parthenogenesis in the Squamate family Agamidae.

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Title: Parthenogenesis in a captive Asian water dragon (Physignathus cocincinus) identified with novel microsatellites
Authors: Kyle L Miller (Author) - Smithsonian's National Zoological Park Washington, United States
Susette Castaneda Rico (Author) - Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, United States
Carly R Muletz-Wolz (Author) - Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, United States
Michael G Campana (Author) - Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, United States
Nancy McInerney (Author) - Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, United States
Lauren Augustine (Author) - Smithsonian's National Zoological Park Washington, United States
Celine H Frere (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - School of Science & Engineering
Alan M Peters (Author) - Smithsonian's National Zoological Park Washington, United States
Robert C Fleischer (Author) - Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, United States
Publication details: PLoS One, Vol.14(6), e0217489
Publisher: Public Library of Science
Date published: 2019
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217489
ISSN: 1932-6203
Copyright note: Copyright © 2019 The Authors. This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.
Organisation Unit: School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99451129902621
Output Type: Journal article

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Web Of Science research areas: Evolutionary Biology

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