Abstract
Sex-determination mechanisms and sex chromosomes are known to vary among reptile species and, in a few celebrated examples, within populations of the same species. The oriental garden lizard, Calotes versicolor, is one of the most intriguing species in this regard, exhibiting evidence of multiple sex-determination modes within a single species. One possible explanation for this unusual distribution is that in C. versicolor, different modes of sex determination are confined to a particular population or a species within a cryptic species complex. Here, we report on a population genetic analysis using SNP data from a methylation-sensitive DArT sequencing analysis and mitochondrial DNA data obtained from samples collected from six locations: three from Bangladesh and three from Thailand. Our aim was to determine whether C. versicolor is best described as a single species with multiple lineages or as multiple species, as well as if its sex-determination mechanisms vary within or between species. We present evidence that the latter possibility is the case and that C. versicolor comprises a complex of cryptic species. We also identify sex-linked markers within these species and use them to identify modes of sex determination. Overall, our results suggest that different sex-determination modes have evolved among closely related species and within populations of Agamid lizards.
Highlights
The determination of sex is one of the most fundamental and yet highly variable mechanisms in the animal kingdom [1], and it can evolve rapidly
In the Japanese wrinkled frog, Glandirana (Rana) rugosa (Temminck and Schlegel, 1838), four genetic forms are distributed in different geographic regions of Japan [3,4], with male and female heterogametic sexes indicating a turnover of sex chromosomes within this single species across its range
Our results identified a total of 88 Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci that were linked to phenotypic sex divergence between the samples reflected in clustering into three distinct groups
Summary
The determination of sex is one of the most fundamental and yet highly variable mechanisms in the animal kingdom [1], and it can evolve rapidly. Variation in this mechanism has been observed within many lineages of animals, plants, and even closely related species or populations [1,2]. Determining heterogametic sex by identifying sex chromosomes is not easy if the sex chromosomes are cryptic These chromosomes may contain sex-specific genes or sequences that can reveal their sex-determination mode (XY or ZW) [8,9,10,11,12,13,14].
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