RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Allele Sharing and Evidence for Sexuality in a Mitochondrial Clade of Bdelloid Rotifers
JF Genetics
JO Genetics
FD Genetics Society of America
SP 581
OP 590
DO 10.1534/genetics.115.176719
VO 200
IS 2
A1 Signorovitch, Ana
A1 Hur, Jae
A1 Gladyshev, Eugene
A1 Meselson, Matthew
YR 2015
UL http://www.genetics.org/content/200/2/581.abstract
AB Rotifers of Class Bdelloidea are common freshwater invertebrates of ancient origin whose apparent asexuality has posed a challenge to the view that sexual reproduction is essential for long-term evolutionary success in eukaryotes and to hypotheses for the advantage of sex. The possibility nevertheless exists that bdelloids reproduce sexually under unknown or inadequately investigated conditions. Although certain methods of population genetics offer definitive means for detecting infrequent or atypical sex, they have not previously been applied to bdelloid rotifers. We conducted such a test with bdelloids belonging to a mitochondrial clade of Macrotrachela quadricornifera. This revealed a striking pattern of allele sharing consistent with sexual reproduction and with meiosis of an atypical sort, in which segregation occurs without requiring homologous chromosome pairs.