Journal of Heredity Advance Access first published online on March 20, 2007
This version published online on April 13, 2007
Journal of Heredity, doi:10.1093/jhered/esm003
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Brief Communication |
Genomic Variation in Parthenogenetic Lizard Darevskia armeniaca: Evidence from DNA Fingerprinting Data
From the Institute of Gene Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 119334, Russia (Malysheva, Tokarskaya, and Ryskov); the Severtsov Institute of Problems of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 117984, Russia (Petrosyan); the Yerevan State University (Department of Zoology), Yerevan, 375000, Armenia (Danielyan); and the Institute of Zoology, Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg, 199034, Russia (Darevsky)
Address correspondence to D. N. Malysheva at the address above, or e-mail: m.dariya{at}gmail.com.
Microsatellites, or short tandem repeats, are abundant across genomes of most organisms. It is evident that the most straightforward and conclusive way of studying mutations in microsatellite-containing loci is to use clonally transmitted genomes or DNA sequences inherited in multigeneration pedigrees. At present, little is known about the origin of genetic variation in species that lack effective genetic recombination. DNA fingerprinting in 43 families of the parthenogenetic lizard species Darevskia armeniaca (131 siblings), using (GACA)4, (GGCA)4, (GATA)4, and (CAC)5 probes, revealed mutant fingerprints in siblings that differed from their mothers in several restriction DNA fragments. In some cases, the mutant fingerprints detected in siblings were also found in population samples. The mutation rate for new restriction fragment length estimated by using multilocus probes varied from 0.8 x 102 to 4.9 x 102 per band/per sibling. Probably, the most variations detected as restriction fragment length polymorphism have germ-line origin, but somatic changes of (CAC)n fingerprints in adult lizards were also observed. These results provide new evidence of existing unstable regions in genomes of parthenogenetic vertebrate animals, which provide genetic variation in unisexual populations.
Corresponding Editor: Martin Tracey
Received February 23, 2006
Accepted January 10, 2007