Journal of Heredity Advance Access originally published online on September 12, 2006
Journal of Heredity 2006 97(5):508-513; doi:10.1093/jhered/esl017
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Microsatellite Documentation of Male-Mediated Outcrossing between Inbred Laboratory Strains of the Self-Fertilizing Mangrove Killifish (Kryptolebias Marmoratus)
From the Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602 (Mackiewicz); the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 (Tatarenkov and Avise); the Department of Biology, University of Louisiana-Monroe, Monroe, LA 71209 (Perry); and the Department of Biology, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, GA 31698 (Martin, Elder, and Bechler)
Address correspondence to M. Mackiewicz at the address above, or e-mail: mmack{at}uga.edu.
Primers for 36 microsatellite loci were developed and employed to characterize genetic stocks and detect possible outcrossing between highly inbred laboratory strains of the self-fertilizing mangrove killifish, Kryptolebias marmoratus. From attempted crosses involving hermaphrodites from particular geographic strains and gonochoristic males from others, 2 among a total of 32 surveyed progenies (6.2%) displayed multilocus heterozygosity clearly indicative of interstrain gametic syngamy. One of these outcross hybrids was allowed to resume self-fertilization, and microsatellite assays of progeny showed that heterozygosity decreased by approximately 50% after one generation, as expected. Although populations of K. marmoratus consist mostly of synchronous hermaphrodites with efficient mechanisms of internal self-fertilization, these laboratory findings experimentally confirm that conspecific males can mediate occasional outcross events and that this process can release extensive genic heterozygosity.