Fig. 8

Schematic representation of the mosaic Meselson effect occurring in a planarian during fissiparous reproduction. a Starting from a homozygous triploid individual having four neoblasts (each with three alleles and five mitochondria), mutations (depicted by different colors) start to appear randomly in the alleles and mitochondria of the neoblasts. After several cycles of homeostasis (H), fission (F) and regeneration (R), the fissiparous individual shows an increased number of derived alleles and haplotypes in different cells but still shows the ancestral. b and c depict the nuclear and mitochondrial haplotype networks at each state, N and M are the ancestral allele and haplotype, the derived alleles and haplotypes are indicated by subsequent numbering and indexing of N and M. * The same processes would happen in both pieces after a fission event