Attack of the Clones: Investigating the Non-Genetic Origins of Behavior with New Faculty Kate Laskowski
About 250,000 years ago, in the region that would become southern Texas and northern Mexico, a unique evolutionary event reshaped the future of a local fish species.
A female Atlantic molly (Poecilia mexicana) reproduced with a male Sailfin molly (Poecilia latipinna), producing a unique fish hybrid called the Amazon molly (Poecilia formosa). In many cases, nature safeguards hybrids through sterility. But in the case of the Amazon molly, something extraordinary happened. Instead of being born sterile, this hybrid reproduced unisexually (termed gynogenetically), a glitch that prevents its DNA from changing from generation to generation. This mother gave birth to an all-female brood of offspring genetically identical to her.