Adenosine deaminase phenotypes among sexual and parthenogenetic lizards in the genus Cnemidophorus (teiidae)

Electrophoresis of liver homogenates has revealed distinct adenosine deaminase (ADA) phenotypes in each of four sexual species belonging to the Cnemidophorus sexlineatus group. A fifth sexual species, C. tigris , shares one of these phenotypes with a species of the C. sexlineatus group, but is distinguished from this species by other genetic and biochemical characters. Hence, knowledge of ADA phenotypes permits discrimination among each of the five sexual species suspected of involvement in interspecific hybridizations leading to the origin of parthenogenetic Cnemidophorus species. Combinations of two or three ADA phenotypes characteristic of sexual species are found in each parthenogenetic species studied. This finding supports the theory of hybrid origin of parthenogenetic species, while the combination of particular alleles in each parthenogenone permits the implication of specific sexual species in its origin.