Microsatellite Documentation of Male-Mediated Outcrossing between Inbred Laboratory Strains of the Self-Fertilizing Mangrove Killifish (Kryptolebias Marmoratus).

Mackiewicz, Mark; Tatarenkov, Andrey; Perry, Andrew; Martin, J. Ryce; Elder Jr, John F.; Bechler, David L.; Avise, John C.

Primers for 36 microsatellite loci were developed and employed to characterize genetic stocks and detect possible outcrossing between highly inbred laboratory strains of the self-fertilizing mangrove killifish, Kryptolebias marmoratus. From attempted crosses involving hermaphrodites from particular geographic strains and gonochoristic males from others, 2 among a total of 32 surveyed progenies (6.2%) displayed multilocus heterozygosity clearly indicative of interstrain gametic syngamy. One of these outcross hybrids was allowed to resume self-fertilization, and microsatellite assays of progeny showed that heterozygosity decreased by approximately 50% after one generation, as expected. Although populations of K. marmoratus consist mostly of synchronous hermaphrodites with efficient mechanisms of internal self-fertilization, these laboratory findings experimentally confirm that conspecific males can mediate occasional outcross events and that this process can release extensive genic heterozygosity.

MICROSATELLITE repeats; GENETIC stock identification of fishes; KILLIFISHES; FISH breeding; INTERSEXUALITY; HETEROZYGOSITY

Journal of Heredity, 2006, Vol 97, Issue 5, p508

0022-1503

Academic Journal

10.1093/jhered/esl017