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Male genital defect (Dumpton Syndrome) in the dog-whelk Nucella lapillus (Neogastropoda): Mendelian inheritance inferred, based on laboratory breeding experiments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2005

P.E. Gibbs
Affiliation:
Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, Devon, PL1 2PB, UK

Abstract

Laboratory breeding of the dog-whelk, Nucella lapillus, has established that the male-sterilizing Dumpton Syndrome (DS)—underdevelopment, or non-development (aphally), of the penis, incomplete formation (non-closure) of the vas deferens, resulting in a split prostate—can be readily observed in male F1 progeny. Cultivated under high ambient concentrations of the antifouling agent tributyltin (TBT), DS-carrying females can be recognized by their lesser degree of masculinization (imposex): sterilization is thereby avoided. When Dumpton females are crossed, under high ambient TBT, with individuals from a non-DS-affected population (Bude, North Cornwall) DS is absent from both sexes. Crosses of these F1 progeny result in F2 progeny exhibiting the classic DS symptoms in both sexes. A Mendelian mechanism for DS inheritance is suggested by the data.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2005 Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom

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