Parthenogenesis in a captive Asian water dragon (Physignathus cocincinus) identified with novel microsatellites.

Reptiles show varying degrees of facultative parthenogenesis. Here we use genetic methods to determine that an isolated, captive female Asian water dragon produced at least nine offspring via parthenogenesis. We identified microsatellites for the species from shotgun genomic sequences, selected and optimized primer sets, and tested all of the offspring for a set of seven microsatellites that were heterozygous in the mother. We verified that the seven loci showed high levels of polymorphism in four wild Asian water dragons from Vietnam. In all cases, the offspring (unhatched, but developed eggs, or hatched young) had only a single allele at each locus, and contained only alleles present in the mother's genotype (i.e., were homozygous or hemizygous). The probability that our findings resulted from the female mating with one or more males is extremely small, indicating that the offspring were derived from a single female gamete (either alone or via duplication and/or fusion) and implicating parthenogenesis. This is the first documented case of parthenogenesis in the Squamate family Agamidae.

Understanding irregular shell formation of Nautilus in aquaria: chemical composition and structural analysis.

Irregular shell formation and black lines on the outside of live chambered nautilus shells have been observed in all adult specimens at aquariums and zoos soon after the organisms enter aquaria. Black lines have also been observed in wild animals at sites of broken shell, but continued growth from that point returns to a normal, smooth structure. In contrast, rough irregular deposition of shell continues throughout residence in aquaria. The composition and reasons for deposition of the black material and mitigation of this irregular shell formation is the subject of the current study. A variety of analytical techniques were used, including stable isotope mass spectrometry (SI-MS), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), micro x-ray fluorescence (µXRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) based X-ray microanalysis. Results indicate that the black material contains excess amounts of copper, zinc, and bromine which are unrelated to the Nautilus diet. The combination of these elements and proteins plays an important role in shell formation, growth, and strengthening. Further study will be needed to compare the proteomics of the shell under aquaria versus natural wild environments. The question remains as to whether the occurrence of the black lines indicates normal healing followed by growth irregularities that are caused by stress from chemical or environmental conditions. In this paper we begin to address this question by examining elemental and isotopic differences of Nautilus diet and salt water. The atomic composition and light stable isotopic ratios of the Nautilus shell formed in aquaria verses wild conditions are presented.