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An extinct vertebrate preserved by its living hybridogenetic descendant.
Journal article

An extinct vertebrate preserved by its living hybridogenetic descendant.

  • Dubey S Department of Ecology & Evolution, University of Lausanne, Biophore Building, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.
  • Dufresnes C Department of Animal & Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Alfred Denny Building, Western Bank, Sheffield, S10 2TN, United Kingdom. c.dufresnes@sheffield.ac.uk.
  • 2017-10-08
Published in:
  • Scientific reports. - 2017
Animals
Anura
Extinction, Biological
Genetic Loci
Hybridization, Genetic
Italy
Phylogeny
Vertebrates
English Hybridogenesis is a special mode of hybrid reproduction where one parental genome is eliminated and the other is transmitted clonally. We propose that this mechanism can perpetuate the genome of extinct species, based on new genetic data from Pelophylax water frogs. We characterized the genetic makeup of Italian hybridogenetic hybrids (P. kl. hispanicus and esculentus) and identified a new endemic lineage of Eastern-Mediterranean origin as one parental ancestor of P. kl. hispanicus. This taxon is nowadays extinct in the wild but its germline subsists through its hybridogenetic descendant, which can thus be considered as a "semi living fossil". Such rare situation calls for realistic efforts of de-extinction through selective breeding without genetic engineering, and fuels the topical controversy of reviving long extinct species. "Ghost" species hidden by taxa of hybrid origin may be more frequent than suspected in vertebrate groups that experienced a strong history of hybridization and semi-sexual reproduction.
Language
  • English
Open access status
gold
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.rero.ch/global/documents/291023
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