Download Martirosyan I.A., Korchagin V.I., Malysheva D.N., Badaeva T.N.

CLONAL DIVERSITY AND GENOME INSTABILITY IN PARTHENOGENETIC
LIZARDS OF GENUS DAREVSKIA
Martirosyan I.A., Korchagin V.I., Malysheva D.N., Badaeva T.N., Tokarskaya O.N.,
Danielyan F.D., Darevsky I.S., Ryskov A.P.
Institute of Gene Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
Caucasian rock lizards of genus Darevskia (D.unisexualis, D.dahli, D.armeniaca,
D.rostombekovi, D.bendimahiensis and D.saphirina) are truly parthenogenetic, allfemale, meiotic, diploid species arisen by hybridization between different bisexual parental
species. As unisexual lineages, parthenogenetic lizards are characterized by some level of
clonal diversity of allozyme loci and exceptionally low mt-DNA sequence diversity.
Multilocus DNA fingerprinting was used to study genetic variation of some mini- and
microsatellite DNA markers in parthenogenetic populations of the species D.unisexualis,
D.dahli, D.armeniaca and D.rostombekovi from Armenia. It was shown that
parthenogenetic Darevskia lizards possess species-specific DNA fingerprinting patterns
revealed with all used mini- and microsatellite probes, but they also shows some level
of intraspecific variation, which was detected with microsatellite probe of different types
((GATA)n, (TCC)n, (GACA)n, (TCT)n). DNA fingerprinting in parthenogenetic families has
shown that mutations arising as DNA replication and/or DNA repair errors, are
responsible for microsatellite variability. To understand the molecular basis of
microsatellite variability it is important to know detailed structure of microsatellite
alleles and their possible turn over. Genomic library of D.unisexualis was constructed and
clones, containing di-, tri- and tetranucleotide microsatellite motives, were screened,
sequenced and analyzed by PCR amplification. PCR products produced from polymorphic
microsatellite loci were also sequenced and allelic variants of these loci were revealed. We
found that allelic differences of these loci were caused by variation in a number of tandem
repeats in microsatellites clusters and point mutations in the flanking regions. This
information is significant for understanding of genetic variability in parthenogenetic lizard
species and for study of phylogenetic relationship in unisexual and related bisexual species
of genus Darevskia.