Abstract
Green toads are common in the Palaearctic region, where they have differentiated into several taxa1,2. The toads exist with variable amounts of ploidy, similar to other anuran species3 or reptiles4. In vertebrate biology, the very rare occurrence of triploidy is coupled with infertility or unisexuality, or requires the coexistence of individuals of different ploidy in a reproductive community. The reproduction of naturally occurring triploids has been reported to occur only through parthenogenesis, gynogenesis or hybridogenesis. The bisexual reproduction of pure triploids has been considered to be impossible because of the problem of equally distributing three chromosome sets in meiosis. Here we report geographically isolated populations of green toads (Bufo viridis complex) that are all-triploid and reproduce bisexually.
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Acknowledgements
We thank W. Böhme, L.J. Borkin, A. Dubois and R. Günther for references; R. Dressel and H. Veith for assistance during field work in Pakistan; A. Hamel for combinatory views; I. Haufe for statistical advice; E. Trautmann and M. Kuhne for help with histological preparations; D. Frynta for animals; G. Moritz for technical support and C. and H. Stöck for technical and financial help. The costs of publication have been defrayed by the 15th International Chromosome Conference. This work was supported in part by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and a graduate fellowship of the country Saxony-Anhalt (Germany; to M.St.).
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Stöck, M., Lamatsch, D., Steinlein, C. et al. A bisexually reproducing all-triploid vertebrate. Nat Genet 30, 325–328 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng839
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng839
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