title: Allele Sharing and Evidence for Sexuality in a Mitochondrial Clade of Bdelloid Rotifers.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Signorovitch
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 Department of Biology, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California 91711.
authors.forename: Jae
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1446-2305
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hur
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138.
authors.forename: Eugene
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4074-4966
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gladyshev
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 Josephine Bay Paul Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543 msm@wjh.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9827-2682
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Meselson
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D023061:Gene Order; D050259:Genes, Mitochondrial; D056426:Genetic Loci; D008540:Meiosis; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D012403:Rotifera / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D012725:Sexual Behavior
keywords: Oenothera; clonal erosion; cyclic parthenogenesis; meiosis; monogonont