Meiosis in rare males in parthenogenetic Cacopsylla myrtilli (Wagner, 1947) (Hemiptera, Psyllidae) populations from northern Europe

By

Nokkala, Christina
Kuznetsova, Valentina G.
Nokkala, Seppo

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2013

Original Publication

Comparative cytogenetics : international journal of plant & animal cytogenetics, karyosystematics and molecular systematics

Volume

7

Series / Issue

Issue: 3

Pages

241-251

Subjects

asynaptic meiosis , Cacopsylla myrtilli , nonfunctional males , Parthenogenesis , spanandric males

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

St. Petersburg, Russia [Published] with technical support of Zoological Institute RAS [2007]-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/compcytogen.v7i3.6126

 

Abstract

For studying meiosis in males, large samples of Cacopsylla myrtilli (Wagner, 1947) (Hemiptera, Psyllidae) were collected in Norway, Sweden, Finland and northwest Russia. In addition to all-female populations, males were present in 10 out of 47 populations; still, all populations were highly female-biased, the proportion of males varying from 0.1% to 9.1%. These males are thus rare or so-called spanandric males. Males in northern Norway, Finland and northwest Russia showed normal chiasmate meiosis, while complete absence of chiasmata due to asynapsis was found in males collected in Norway and northern Sweden. In asynaptic meiosis, all univalent chromosomes divided during the first meiotic division resulting in incomplete second meiotic division and formation of diploid sperms. Hence, males in these populations are nonfunctional and do not contribute to the genetic constitution of the population, but appear in every generation as reversals from apomictic parthenogenesis and the mode of parthenogenesis is of obligatory type.