Nicolas B. M. Pruvost

• PhD
• Research Associate at University of Zurich

The scarcity of parthenogenetic vertebrates is often attributed to their ‘inferior’ mode of clonal reproduction, which restricts them to self-reproduce their own genotype lineage and leaves little evolutionary potential with regard to speciation and evolution of sexual reproduction. Here, we show that for some taxa such uniformity does not hold. By...

The European water frog Pelophylax esculentus is a natural hybrid between P. lessonae (genotype LL) and P. ridibundus (RR). It reproduces through hybridogenesis, eliminating one parental genome from its germline and producing gametes containing the genome of the other parental species. According to previous studies, this elimination and transmissio...

We describe a pentaploid froglet (LLLRR; three Pelophylax lessonaeand two Pelophylax ridibundusgenomes) that has never been reported before within the Water Frog Pelophylax esculentus)hybrid complexes. The pentaploid specimen was found among almost all triploid siblings obtained from a diploid femaleP. esculentus(LR) crossed with a diploid male P....

European water frog hybrids Rana esculenta reproduce hemiclonally, by hybridogenesis: In the germ line they exclude the genome of the parental species Rana lessonae and produce haploid, unrecombined gametes with a genome of the parental species Rana ridibunda. These hybrids coexist with and depend as sexual parasites on the host parental species R....

Background: Sexual parasites offer unique insights into the reproduction of unisexual and sexual populations. Because unisexuality is almost exclusively linked to the female sex, most studies addressed host-parasite dynamics in populations where sperm-dependent females dominate. Pelophylax water frogs from Central Europe include hybrids of both se...

Polyploidization is a rare yet sometimes successful way for animals to rapidly create geno- and phenotypes that may colonize new habitats and quickly adapt to environmental changes. In this study, we use water frogs of the Pelophylax esculentus complex, comprising two species (Pelophylax lessonae, genotype LL; Pelophylax ridibundus, RR) and various...

Polyploidization is a rare yet sometimes successful way for animals to rapidly create geno- and phenotypes that may colonize new habitats and quickly adapt to environmental changes. In this study, we use water frogs of the Pelophylax esculentus complex, comprising two species (Pelophylax lessonae, genotype LL; Pelophylax ridibundus, RR) and various...

Coexistence of sperm-dependent asexual hybrids with their sexual progenitors depends on genetic and ecological interactions between sexual and asexual forms. In this study, we investigate genotypic composition, modes of hybridogenetic gametogenesis and habitat preferences of European water frogs (Pelophylax esculentus complex) in a region of sympat...

The evolutionary potential and ecological importance of interspecific hybrids continues to be a controversial issue. Traditionally, hybridization – often associated with polyploidy and clonal reproduction – was considered an important mechanism for speciation in plants, but not in animals. More recently, investigations have shifted to the question:...

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The European water frog Pelophylax esculentus (genome LR) is a natural hybrid between P. lessonae (LL) and P. ridibundus (RR). It presents a peculiar quasi-sexual reproductive mode known as hybridogenesis: the hybrid excludes one of the parental species’ genomes at a pre-meiotic stage of gametogenesis, thus producing gametes containing clonal copie...

Variation patterns of allozymes and of ND3 haplotypes of mitochondrial DNA reveal a zone of genetic transition among western Palearctic water frogs extending across northeastern Greece and European Turkey. At the western end of the zone, allozymes characteristic of Central European frogs known as Pelophylax ridibundus predominate, whereas at the ea...

Water frogs [genus Pelophylax (Rana)] that occur around the eastern Mediterranean Sea provide an opportunity to study early stages of speciation. The geography of the eastern Mediterranean region has changed dramatically since the Middle Miocene as a result of motions of adjoining lithospheric plates and regional-scale vertical crustal motions (upl...