The Evolution, Physiology and Ecology of the Australian Arid-Zone Frog Fauna

Abstract

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Polyploidy breaks speciation barriers in Australian burrowing frogs Neobatrachus

“…Indeed, tetraploid Neobatrachus species have lower pulse number and rate in their advertisement calls compared to diploids with multiple pulses in their calls (however N. sutor (2n) and N. wilsmorei (2n) have calls with a single pulse). However, each of the Neobatrachus species retain distinct calls [24,25]. This differs from the more extensively studied gray treefrog, Hyla versicolor [26,27], where tetraploids may have also originated from multiple independent origins but have calls that are largely similar across lineages [28].…”

“…There are several possible scenarios of unidirectional gene flow from diploids to tetraploids which the TreeMix analysis suggested, for example, (1) through an unreduced gamete of a diploid crossing with a tetraploid or (2) through a triploid individual formed in a cross between diploid and a tetraploid, which could produce unreduced 3n gametes and backcross to a diploid. We describe these scenarios and potential mechanisms of unreduced gamete formation in more detail providing evidence based on literature [21,25,30,31,[68][69][70][71][72][73], cytology and field observations in the S1 Text. Extensive gene flow between Neobatrachus species, especially between the tetraploid species, makes it difficult to estimate the true ancestral diploid population(s) for the tetraploids.…”

“…We have also excluded from further analysis sample I5442, initially identified as N. kunapalari, which was estimated to be a triploid and showed high levels of admixture between a diploid N. wilsmorei and potentially N. kunapalari or N. sudellae. In fact, triploid individuals are known in natural populations of Neobatrachus [22,24,25,91,92] , (S1 Text), and could provide an explanation for the gene flow between species of different ploidy through a "triploid bridge". A 3n individual formed in a cross between 2n and 4n individuals could produce a haploid, diploid or triploid gametes.…”