Abstract
A battery of allelic markers at highly polymorphic microsatellite loci was developed and employed to confirm genetically, the clonal nature of sibships in nine-banded armadillos. This phenomenon of consistent polyembryony, otherwise nearly unknown among the vertebrates, was capitalized upon to describe the micro-spatial distributions of numerous clonal sibships in a natural population of armadillos. Adult clone mates were significantly more dispersed than were juvenile sibs, suggesting limited opportunities for altruistic behavioural interactions among mature individuals. These results, and considerations of armadillo natural history, suggest that evolutionary explanations for polyembryony in this species may not reside in the kinds of ecological and kin selection theories relevant to some of the polyembryonic invertebrates. Rather, polyembryony in armadillos may be associated evolutionarily with other reproductive peculiarities of the species, including delayed uterine implantation of a single egg.
Highlights
Polyembryony in any event, the genetic identity of armadillo siblings has this species was first suspected early in this century not yet been critically documented in DNA- or proteinfrom the observation that litter mates are of the same level genetic assays
The micro-spatial distributions of armadillo clones have implications for the opportunity for kin selection, one of the classes of hypotheses sometimes invoked to explain the evolution of polyembryony
Seven microsatellite loci proved moderately variable, with three to seven alleles segregating per locus and expected per-locus heterozygosities ranging from
Summary
A battery of allelic markers at highly polymorphic microsatellite loci was developed and employed to confirm, genetically, the clonal nature of sibships in nine-banded armadillos. This phenomenon of consistent polyembryony, otherwise nearly unknown among the vertebrates, was capitalized upon to describe the micro-spatial distributions of numerous clonal sibships in a natural population of armadillos. Adult clone mates were significantly more dispersed than were juvenile sibs, suggesting limited opportunities for altruistic behavioural interactions among mature individuals. These results, and considerations of armadillo natural history, suggest that evolutionary explanations for polyembryony in this species may not reside in the kinds of ecological and kin selection theories relevant to some of the polyembryonic invertebrates. Polyembryony in armadillos may be associated evolutionarily with other reproductive peculiarities of the species, including delayed uterine implantation of a single egg
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