Elevated heterozygosity clued atypical reproduction: evidence consistent with hybridogenesis mediating insular occurrence of a narrowly endemic spiny frog

Elevated heterozygosity clued atypical reproduction: evidence consistent with hybridogenesis mediating insular occurrence of a narrowly endemic spiny frog | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Elevated heterozygosity clued atypical reproduction: evidence consistent with hybridogenesis mediating insular occurrence of a narrowly endemic spiny frog Yuchi Zheng, Bin Wang, Yue Cao, Xiaomao Zeng, Yun Xia This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4422076/v3 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 3 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Abstract Hybridogenesis is a rare reproductive mode found in interspecific hybrids that involves discarding one parental genome during gametogenesis and clonally transmitting the other, with the former renewed by backcrossing. It may in theory mediate species range expansion, since such hybrids can also cross and have pure-species offspring for establishing new populations and are often widespread probably due to hybrid vigor. Being inspired by a magnitude difference between estimates of individual heterozygosity, we collected genome-wide data and evaluated predictions from hybridogenesis of hybrids between the wide-ranging Asian spiny frog Quasipaa boulengeri and a narrow endemic, Q. robertingeri . We rejected other atypical modes of reproduction such as parthenogenesis or androgenesis and provided the first evidence consistent with a hypothesis that hybridogenesis mediated the occurrence of individuals far from the species range (~500 km). Despite contributing to early evidence of the only distinct hybridogenetic complex inferred in ten years, individual heterozygosity has likely been an often overlooked variable. The accumulating genome-wide data may serve as a resource for searching for individual heterozygosity clues of atypical reproduction of interspecific hybrid origin. The findings in spiny frogs make a case that genome-wide data provide crucial evidence for updating our knowledge on reproductive-mode evolution of taxa. Evolutionary Biology hybridization hemiclone fixed heterozygosity rearrangement Quasipaa disjunct range expansion Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Supplementary Files Fig.S1.pdf Fig. S1 Fig.S2.pdf Fig. S2 Fig.S3.pdf Fig. S3 TableS1.xls Table S1 TableS2.xls Table S2 Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 3 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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