Eggshell spotting in brood parasitic shiny cowbirds (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Molothrus bonariensis</Emphasis>) is not linked to the female sex chromosome |
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Authors: | Bettina Mahler Viviana A Confalonieri Irby J Lovette Juan C Reboreda |
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Institution: | (1) Departamento de Ecología, Genética y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Pabellón II Ciudad Universitaria, C1428EGA Buenos Aires, Argentina;(2) Fuller Evolutionary Biology Program, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA |
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Abstract: | For avian brood parasites in which individual females are host-specialists, the arms race between hosts and parasites has
favored egg color polymorphism in the parasite, with female lineages laying mimetic eggs that resemble those of the host species
they parasitize. Female sex-linked inheritance of egg color fosters evolutionary stability of egg polymorphism if female lineages
show both consistent eggshell color and host use. This co-evolutionary relationship is unlikely to occur if individual brood
parasites use different hosts or if egg color is not maternally inherited. The shiny cowbird (Molothrus bonariensis) is an extreme generalist brood parasite that shows a very high degree of egg polymorphism. We tested whether egg spotting
in this species has female sex-linked inheritance. If genetic factors controlling the expression of egg spotting were present
on the female-specific W chromosome, we expected co-segregation between spotting patterns and mtDNA haplotypes, as both W
and mtDNA are maternally inherited. In contrast to the known maternal inheritance of spotting patterns in great tits, we found
no associations between eggshell spotting and mtDNA haplotypes, which suggests that eggshell spotting is not maternally inherited
in this cowbird species. |
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Keywords: | Brood parasitism Eggshell spotting Molothrus bonariensis mtDNA Shiny cowbird |
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