ArticleNature ecology & evolution2018
Clonal polymorphism and high heterozygosity in the celibate genome of the Amazon molly.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 70 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
70 citing papers in PubMed.
- The mechanistic and evolutionary diversity of programmed DNA elimination.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2026Review
- The highly heterozygous European amphioxus (Branchiostoma lanceolatum) at the edge of panmixia.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- Differences in Parasite Infection Status and Behavior Between a Clonal Fish and Her Sexually Reproducing Heterospecifics.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Ancestral gene flow shaped the singular origin of the Amazon molly.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Stepwise emergence of recombination suppression precedes fissiparous asexuality in the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Genome evolution in parthenogenetic nematodes shaped by chromosome rearrangements and introgression.Genome research · 2026Article
- Genetic and Environmentally Induced Scalation Variation in Bisexual and Parthenogenetic Lizards.Biology · 2026Article
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- Sex chromosome turnover and structural genome divergence shape meiotic outcomes in hybridizing Cobitis.GigaScience · 2026Article
- Repeated Independent Formation of Triploid Lineages Contributes to Clonal Diversity in Heteronotia binoei Parthenogens.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
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- Gain and Loss of Heterozygosity in the Genome of the Asexual Nematode Halicephalobus mephisto.Journal of molecular evolution · 2025Article
- Converging or diverging? Shape coevolution between a sperm-dependent asexual and its sexual hosts.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Speciation by hybridization: the mind-boggling nature, educational, and research value of the largest group of unisexual vertebrates.Bioscience · 2025Article
- Predator exposure early in life shapes behavioral development and individual variation in a clonal fish.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Genetic and phenotypic diversification in a widespread fish, the Sailfin Molly (Poecilia latipinna).BMC ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Nascent transcription reveals regulatory changes in extremophile fishes inhabiting hydrogen sulfide-rich environments.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Endocrine disruption in teleosts and amphibians is mediated by anthropogenic and natural environmental factors: implications for risk assessment.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Enrichment effects on growth, health, and reproduction in a single clone of the asexual Amazon molly,PeerJ · 2024Article
10 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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28 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The extreme rarity of asexual vertebrates in nature is generally explained by genomic decay due to absence of meiotic recombination, thus leading to extinction of such lineages. We explore features of a vertebrate asexual genome, the Amazon molly, Poecilia formosa, and find few signs of genetic degeneration but unique genetic variability and ongoing evolution. We uncovered a substantial clonal polymorphism and, as a conserved feature from its interspecific hybrid origin, a 10-fold higher heterozygosity than in the sexual parental species. These characteristics seem to be a principal reason for the unpredicted fitness of this asexual vertebrate. Our data suggest that asexual vertebrate lineages are scarce not because they are at a disadvantage, but because the genomic combinations required to bypass meiosis and to make up a functioning hybrid genome are rarely met in nature.
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