- Chuck Smith
- May 1
- 2 min read
Departures from Mendelian inheritance patterns in an experimental hybrid rattlesnake colony
Largotta, Nicolas
Biology Department
Kean University
Union, New Jersey USA
Levine, Brenna
Biology Department
Kean University
Union, New Jersey USA
Chiricahua Desert Museum
Rodeo, New Mexico USA
Booth, Warren
Department of Entomology
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, Virginia USA
Chiricahua Desert Museum
Rodeo, New Mexico USA
Schuett, Gordon W.
Biology Department | Neuroscience Institute
Georgia State University
Atlanta, Georgia USA
Chiricahua Desert Museum
Rodeo, New Mexico USA
Wuster, Wolfgang
Molecular Ecology and Evolution at Bangor (MEEB)
School of Environmental and Natural Sciences
Bangor University
Wales, UK
Chiricahua Desert Museum
Rodeo, New Mexico USA
Hybridization between even closely related species can generate genomic incompatibilities in the offspring, leading to departures from expected patterns of Mendelian inheritance. We investigated this phenomenon in an experimental colony of Mojave Rattlesnakes (Crotalus scutulatus) and Prairie Rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis) and their hybrid offspring. We performed whole-genome re-sequencing on two non-hybrid parents (C. scutulatus x C. viridis) and their four F1 hybrid offspring to characterize genetic relatedness, with sequencing reads aligned to the Prairie Rattlesnake reference genome. Our initial attempts at standard genomic relatedness analysis revealed unexpected patterns of inheritance among parents and offspring. We confirmed parentage of the offspring via analysis of a SNP data set filtered to be free of species-informative SNPs. We then quantified genome-wide Mendelian incompatibilities for the mother/father/offspring triads. These preliminary findings contribute to our understanding of how hybridization among rattlesnake species disrupts expected inheritance patterns, with broader implications for evolution in natural hybrid zones.