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.