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closeParthenogen sex
Posted by Warren_Booth on 07 Jun 2019 at 18:46 GMT
The observation of female parthenogens here, presents an interesting finding regarding the sex-determination system of this species. While other agamid lizards have been shown to possess a ZZ/ZW sex-determination system (females are ZW), this should result in the production of male parthenogens (ZZ males, as WW females have long been assumed tp be non-viable). The production of females would therefore be expected with an XX/XY system, where females are XX. As such, XX females can only produce X gametes, and thus female (XX) parthenogens. This is supported by Patawang et al. (2015), who found no apparent sex-chromosomes in their study of male and female "Physignathus cocincinus". Thus, like "Boa imperator", "B. constrictor", and "Python bivittatus", which all exhibit homomorphic sex chromosomes (and are thus not apparent), this finding suggests "P. cocincinus" may possess an XX/XY sex-determination system; something worthy of future investigation. The ability for these parthenogens to reproduce would also be worthy of investigation.