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Production of diploid and triploid offspring by inbreeding of the triploid planarian Dugesia ryukyuensis

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An Erratum to this article was published on 01 April 2008

Abstract

Triploidy has generally been considered to be an evolutionary dead end due to problems of chromosomal pairing and segregation during meiosis. Thus, the formation of tetraploids and diploids from triploid types is a rare phenomenon. In the present study, we demonstrated that inbreeding of the triploid planarian Dugesia ryukyuensis resulted in both diploid and triploid offspring in nature. In the triploids of D. ryukyuensis, chiasmata between homologous chromosomes were observed in both female and male germ lines. This result suggests that both diploid and triploid offspring of this species are produced bisexually by zygotic fusion between sperm and eggs. Hence, this phenomenon may be a novel mechanism in planarian for escaping the triploid state.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Shinichiro Nishitani and Dr. Takahiro Murakami for providing detailed information on chromosome preparation. We would also like to thank Dr. Thomas G. D’Souza for his valuable discussion and comments on this manuscript and Dr. Yutaka Tomita for his advice on the statistical analysis. This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (No. 100082 and 16086209) from the Ministry of Science, Culture, Sports and Education, Japan (MH and MM) and from PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Corporation (KK).

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Author notes

  1. Kazuya Kobayashi

    Present address: Animal Evolutionary Ecology, Zoological Institute, University of Tübingen, Auf Der Morgenstelle 28, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

  2. Motonori Hoshi

    Present address: University of the Air, 2-11, Wakaba, Mihama-ku, Chiba, 261-8586, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biosciences and Informatics, Keio University, Hiyoshi 3-14-1, Kouhoku-ku, Yokohama, 223-8522, Japan

    Kazuya Kobayashi, Hirotsugu Ishizu, Sachiko Arioka, Motonori Hoshi & Midori Matsumoto

  2. Center for Life Science and Technology, Keio University, Hiyoshi 3-14-1, Kouhoku-ku, Yokohama, 223-8522, Japan

    Kazuya Kobayashi, Hirotsugu Ishizu, Sachiko Arioka, Motonori Hoshi & Midori Matsumoto

  3. Institute of Biology, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, 1101, Manila, Philippines

    Jocelyn Padilla Cabrera

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  1. Kazuya Kobayashi
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Correspondence to Midori Matsumoto.

Additional information

Communicated by E.A. Nigg

An Erratum for this chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00412-008-0156-6

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Kobayashi, K., Ishizu, H., Arioka, S. et al. Production of diploid and triploid offspring by inbreeding of the triploid planarian Dugesia ryukyuensis . Chromosoma 117, 289–296 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00412-008-0148-6

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