Abramjan Andran, Arakelyan Marine, Frynta Daniel
Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná 7, Prague, 12843, Czech Republic.
Department of Zoology, Faculty of Biology, Yerevan State University, Alek Manoogian 1, Yerevan, 0025, Armenia.
Curr Zool. 2021 Apr;67(2):201-213. doi: 10.1093/cz/zoaa039. Epub 2020 Jul 17.
Sexual selection often leads to evolution of conspicuous signals, raising the chances of attracting not only potential mates, but also predators. In lacertid lizards, ultraviolet (UV)-blue spots on flanks and shoulders represent such a trait. Some level of correlation between male and female ornamentation is also known to exist. Therefore, the phenotype of females may change in the absence of sexual selection. We tested this hypothesis on a complex of parthenogenetic and bisexual lizards of the genus . We evaluated area, counts, and chromatic properties (UV opponency, saturation) of UV-blue spots and compared the values between the clones and their bisexual progenitor species. We found a fair heterogeneity between the parthenogenetic species, but no general tendency toward higher crypsis or conspicuousness. Values of the parthenogens were not significantly different from the values of sexual females. A possible explanation is that the changes in selective forces associated with parthenogenetic reproduction are too small to affect the resulting pattern of selective pressures on the studied traits, or that the phenotypes of the parthenogens result from the unique combination of parental genomes and are conserved by clonal reproduction.
性选择常常导致显著信号的进化，这不仅增加了吸引潜在配偶的机会，也增加了被捕食者发现的几率。在蜥蜴科蜥蜴中，身体两侧和肩部的紫外（UV）蓝色斑点就是这样一种特征。已知雄性和雌性的装饰之间也存在一定程度的相关性。因此，在没有性选择的情况下，雌性的表型可能会发生变化。我们在一个单性生殖和两性生殖的蜥蜴属复合体上检验了这一假设。我们评估了UV蓝色斑点的面积、数量和颜色特性（UV对立性、饱和度），并比较了克隆体与其两性生殖祖先物种之间的这些数值。我们发现单性生殖物种之间存在相当大的异质性，但没有普遍的向更高隐蔽性或显著性发展的趋势。单性生殖个体的数值与有性生殖雌性的数值没有显著差异。一种可能的解释是，与单性生殖相关的选择压力变化太小，无法影响对所研究性状产生的选择压力模式，或者单性生殖个体的表型是由亲本基因组的独特组合产生的，并通过克隆繁殖得以保留。
