ArticleNature2013
Genomic evidence for ameiotic evolution in the bdelloid rotifer Adineta vaga.
Article in Nature, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 190 papers.
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Who cites it
190 citing papers in PubMed, 406 citations in OpenAlex.
- Transgenerational chromosome repair in the asexual bdelloid rotiferScience advances · 2026Article
- Fragmentation of Long Reads Enables Reliable Mitogenome Assembly From Whole-Genome Amplification Data With Pervasive Palindromic Reads.Molecular ecology resources · 2026Article
- Stepwise emergence of recombination suppression precedes fissiparous asexuality in the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Two divergent haploid nuclei shaped the landscape of population diversity in wheat stripe rust Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici.Communications biology · 2026Article
- A compendium of horizontal gene transfers in Metazoa.Scientific data · 2026Article
- Using reciprocally retained gene families to detect whole-genome multiplications in plants.Genome biology · 2026Article
- Repeated Independent Formation of Triploid Lineages Contributes to Clonal Diversity in Heteronotia binoei Parthenogens.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Anterior-posterior patterning in the chaetognath Spadella cephaloptera informs bilaterian nervous system and tail evolution.Communications biology · 2025Article
- The eukaryotic horizontal gene transfer dataset a compendium.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Article
- Rotifers in space: transcriptomic response of the bdelloid rotifer Adineta vaga aboard the International Space Station.BMC biology · 2025Article
- Whole Genome Duplication in the Genomics Era: The Hidden Gems in Invertebrates?Genome biology and evolution · 2025Review
- The Role of Vulture (Accipitriformes) Cutaneous Microbiota in Infectious Disease Protection.Microorganisms · 2025Review
- Life on the dry side: a roadmap to understanding desiccation tolerance and accelerating translational applications.Nature communications · 2025Review
- A horizontally transferred bacterial gene aids the freezing tolerance of Antarctic bdelloid rotifers.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Comparing Small and Large Genomes Within Monogonont Rotifers.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Hybridization in an Alloploid Salamander (Ambystomatidae:Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Multiple Displacement Amplification Facilitates SMRT Sequencing of Microscopic Animals and the Genome of the Gastrotrich Lepidodermella squamata (Dujardin 1841).Genome biology and evolution · 2024Article
- An ancient whole-genome duplication in barnacles contributes to their diversification and intertidal sessile life adaptation.Journal of advanced research · 2024Article
- Bdelloid rotifers deploy horizontally acquired biosynthetic genes against a fungal pathogen.Nature communications · 2024Article
130 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
40 authors at 18 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Loss of sexual reproduction is considered an evolutionary dead end for metazoans, but bdelloid rotifers challenge this view as they appear to have persisted asexually for millions of years. Neither male sex organs nor meiosis have ever been observed in these microscopic animals: oocytes are formed through mitotic divisions, with no reduction of chromosome number and no indication of chromosome pairing. However, current evidence does not exclude that they may engage in sex on rare, cryptic occasions. Here we report the genome of a bdelloid rotifer, Adineta vaga (Davis, 1873), and show that its structure is incompatible with conventional meiosis. At gene scale, the genome of A. vaga is tetraploid and comprises both anciently duplicated segments and less divergent allelic regions. However, in contrast to sexual species, the allelic regions are rearranged and sometimes even found on the same chromosome. Such structure does not allow meiotic pairing; instead, we find abundant evidence of gene conversion, which may limit the accumulation of deleterious mutations in the absence of meiosis. Gene families involved in resistance to oxidation, carbohydrate metabolism and defence against transposons are significantly expanded, which may explain why transposable elements cover only 3% of the assembled sequence. Furthermore, 8% of the genes are likely to be of non-metazoan origin and were probably acquired horizontally. This apparent convergence between bdelloids and prokaryotes sheds new light on the evolutionary significance of sex.
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