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Evolution of asexuality

A new type of non-Mendelian segregation

An analysis of whole genomes of mothers and daughters of the clonal raider ant Ooceraea biroi shows non-random segregation of chromosomes during meiosis, which enables the species to maintain heterozygosity while still recombining because crossover products are faithfully coinherited.

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Fig. 1: Coinheritance of crossover products during meiosis maintains genome-wide heterozygosity in the parthenogenetic ant O. biroi.

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Correspondence to Marie Delattre.

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Blanc, C., Delattre, M. A new type of non-Mendelian segregation. Nat Ecol Evol 8, 1387–1388 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02482-w

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