Unisexual salamander evolution: A long, strange trip
July 25, 2018, The Ohio State University
The reproductive history of the unisexual, ladies-only salamander species is full of evolutionary surprises.
In a new study, a team of researchers at The Ohio State University traced the animals' genetic history back 3.4 million years and found some head-scratching details—primarily that they seem to have gone for millions of years without any DNA contributions from male salamanders and still have managed to persist. The research appears in the journal Evolution.
First, a bit about the unisexual Ambystoma salamander: They're female, and they reproduce mainly through cloning and the occasional theft of another salamander species' sperm, which the males of sexual species deposit on leaves and twigs and the like. When this happens, it stimulates egg production and the borrowed species' genetic information is sometimes incorporated into the genome of the unisexual salamanders, a process called kleptogenesis.
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2018-07-unisexual-salamander-evolution-strange.html#jCp
