Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T13:19:25.567Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)