CHROMOSOME INHERITANCE IN PARTHENOGENETIC LIZARDS AND EVOLUTION OF ALLOPOLYPLOIDY IN REPTILES

Chromosome studies of individually identified mothers, daughters, granddaughters and siblings of whiptail lizards (Cnemidophorus) demonstrated that triploid parthenogenetic females, hatched and raised in the laboratory in isolation from males, produced parthenogenetic offspring having the same triploid karyotype as their mother. However, an egg from a triploid parthenogenetic female that was fertilized by a haploid spermatozoan from a male of a diploid bisexual species produced a viable tetraploid hybrid. These observations are consistent with earlier conclusions concerning oogenesis in parthenogenetic species of Cnemidophorus, the origin of certain parthenogenetic species through hybridization, the evolution of allopolyploidy in reptiles, the identification of unusual polyploid hybrids found infrequently in nature, and sex determination in Cnemidophorus. © 1979 AMERICAN GENETIC ASSOCIATION.