First record of colour polymorphism in the Neotropical apple snail Asolene platae: inheritance mechanism and evidence for multiple paternity

ABSTRACT

Asolene platae (Ampullariidae) is a dioecious freshwater snail with subaquatic gelatinous egg masses that dwells in the Río de la Plata basin (Argentina). The aim of this study was to describe the inheritance mechanism of the colour variations of the shell and soft parts of this snail, and to study their potential use as a genetic marker. The wild-type phenotype presents dark pigments in the soft parts and in shell bands, whereas the yellow phenotype lacks dark pigments in the soft parts and also most dark bands in the shell, except for a subsutural and a periumbilical band. The data showed that the lack of pigments in A. platae is a recessive homozygotic condition with a simple Mendelian inheritance mechanism. Females of the wild-type phenotype had a higher number of bands than the males. The pigment of the bands of both phenotypes is located in the calcareous matrix of the shell. Using the lack of pigments as a genetic marker we demonstrated the existence of biparental egg masses in A. platae, hitherto known in only one species within the Ampullariidae.

KEYWORDS:

• Genetic marker
• melanin
• pigmentation
• polyene
• unbanded shell

Acknowledgements

We thank two anonymous reviewers for their comments on a previous version of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The present study was funded by grants from CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas), [grant number PIP 112–200901–00473], UNS (Universidad Nacional del Sur), [grant number PGI 24/B185] and ANPCYT (Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica), [grant number PICT 2012–1956]. M.J.T. is a postdoctoral fellow in CONICET. S.B. and P.R.M. are researchers in CONICET.