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Fig. 9 | BMC Evolutionary Biology

Fig. 9

From: Outstanding intraindividual genetic diversity in fissiparous planarians (Dugesia, Platyhelminthes) with facultative sex

Fig. 9

Schematic representation of new genetic combinations resulting from the cross of two resexualized fissiparous planarians. a When fissiparous individuals showing the mosaic Meselson effect resexualize, their original (depicted in black) and new alleles and haplotypes (depicted with different colors) segregate in their gametes. While haploid sperm only carries a single nuclear allele, diploid oocytes carry two alleles and two mitochondria (the bottleneck of mitochondria during oogenesis is represented by the loss of three mitochondria per neoblast). b After crossing, non-mosaic descendants are born showing different combinations of ancestral (N and M) and derived (indicated by a N or M with subsequent numbering and indexing) alleles and haplotypes, such as the six different genetic combinations shown in the figure as an example. Notice that derived alleles that progenitors had in different cells (such as N1’’ and N2’) can be inherited together in the offspring. c If descendants resume fissiparous reproduction, they will result in new lineages that accumulate new mutations in the alleles and haplotypes that they inherited

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