Talk:Klepton

Note
I left a note about this at Talk:Parthenogenesis. Oranjblud (talk) 16:40, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

The form kleptenai does not exist in classical greek.62.178.159.113 (talk) 09:11, 26 November 2013 (UTC)

This article is pretty short, and I feel that there is a lot of information that could be added to make it more informative for readers. Specific information that could be added includes but is not limited to:

1.) Kleptogenesis is entirely unique to 5 salamander species of the genus Ambystoma, all of which are native to the United States and Canada.

2.) Kleptogenesis results in elevated ploidy levels and, in salamanders, individuals with the genetic information of up to 5 different salamander species.

3.) Kleptogenesis has allowed the 5 Ambystoma species to evolve a unisexual lineage of all female individuals. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hudson.336 (talk • contribs) 00:58, 29 September 2014 (UTC)

I thought this article could use some more in-depth information, so I added a large portion to the middle of the entry. Kleptogenic reproduction results in three potential outcomes. A unisexual female may simply activate cell division in the egg through the presence of a male's sperm without incorporating any of his genetic material -- this results in the production of clonal offspring. The female may also incorporate the male's sperm into her egg, but can do so without excising any of her genetic material. This results in increased ploidy levels that range from triploid to pentaploid in wild-caught individuals. Finally, the female also has the option of replacing some of her genetic material with that of the male's, resulting in a "hybrid" of sorts without increasing ploidy.[4].

In the wild, five species of Ambystoma salamanders contribute to a unisexual complex that reproduces via kleptogenesis: A. tigrinum, A. barbouri, A. texanum, A. jeffersonium, and A. laterale. Over twenty genomic combinations have been found in nature, ranging from "LLJ" individuals (two A. laterale and an A. jeffersonium genome) to "LJTi" individuals (an A. laterale, A. jeffersonium, and an A. tigrinum genome)[4]. Every combination, however, contains the genetic information from the A. laterale species, and analysis of mitochondrial DNA has indicated that these unisexual species most likely diverged from an A. barbouri individual some 5 million years ago[5], making them the oldest unisexual vertebrate species on Earth[6]

The fact that these salamanders have persisted for so long is remarkable, as it contradicts the notion that a majority of asexual lineages arise when the conditions are right and quickly disappear [7]. It has been argued that this persistence is very much due to the aforementioned "genome replacement" strategy that accompanies kleptogenic reproduction -- replacing a portion of the maternal genome with paternal DNA in offspring has allowed unisexual individuals to "refresh" their genetic material through time. This facet of kleptogenesis was recently ascertained from genetic research that indicates there is no ancestral A. laterale genome that is maintained from one unisexual to the next, and that there is not a specific "L" genome that is found more often than others. "L" genetic material found in these salamanders has also not evolved to be substantially unique from sexual genomes.[4] Hudson.336 (talk) 22:34, 14 November 2014 (UTC)