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Evolution of Sceloporus grammicus complex (Sauria: Iguanidae) in central Mexico II. Studies on rates of nondisjunction and the occurrence of spontaneous chromosomal mutations

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Abstract

The iguanid lizard Sceloporus grammicus has a high level of karyotypic variability, and has often been cited as an example of chromosomal speciation. We examined a total of 2036 secondary spermatocytes from 30 S. grammicus males, and found that 16 of the 30 individuals (including a single lizard collected from a hybrid zone between two chromosome races) produced completely balanced spermatocytes. Fourteen of the 30 lizards (including both chromosomal heterozygotes and homozygotes) had relatively low (0.6% to 7.1%) levels of aneuploidy. Heterozygotes had a 1.1% increase over homozygotes in the number of aneuploid spermatocytes observed. The frequency of aneuploidy in S. grammicus may not be high enough to cause chromosomal speciation by any of the mechanisms that have been proposed for this complex. Most individuals showed balanced segregation of the autosomal trivalents, but nearly half of the lizards had a significant excess of spermatocytes with the X1 and X2 rather than the Y sex chromosomes. Five lizards had spermatocytes which had fission mutations not found in the somatic cells. As many as 5.9% of the spermatocytes in one individual had chromosomal mutations. This chromosomal mutation rate has important implications for chromosomal evolution in S. grammicus.

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  1. C. A. Porter

    Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, 79409, Lubbock, TX, USA

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  1. Department of Zoology, Brigham Young University Provo, 84602, UT, USA

    C. A. Porter & J. W. Sites Jr.

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Porter, C.A., Sites, J.W. Evolution of Sceloporus grammicus complex (Sauria: Iguanidae) in central Mexico II. Studies on rates of nondisjunction and the occurrence of spontaneous chromosomal mutations. Genetica 75, 131–144 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00055257

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