POLYPLOIDY IN THE MEXICAN AXOLOTL (AMBYSTOMA MEXICANUM) RESULTING FROM MULTINUCLEATE OVA

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Abstract
Multinucleate eggs, much larger than the ordinary mononucleate ones, have been found in the spawnings of dark Mexican axolotls of a strain derived from European stock of obscure origin. The majority of these oversized eggs have 2 nuclei, but a few have 3 or 4. In 51 spawnings including them, such large eggs constituted 0.85% of the total (209 out of 24,588). Of 145 embryos or larvae which developed from these eggs, 113 (77.9%) were triploids, 26 (17.9%) were diploids, and the remaining 6 were tetraploids and mosaics. The females spawning multinucleate eggs, with one exception, have been descended through both parents from the 2 animals whose mating produced the first female known to have spawned such eggs. This suggests that the tendency to produce multinucleate eggs may depend upon homozygosity for a recessive gene or genes. Such eggs have not been found in the spawnings of white axolotls or of dark females of 4 other strains, but have been included in spawnings of over 38% of the females of the dark strain showing this peculiarity. Their occurrence in this strain must be taken into account in any study involving consideration of chromosome number.

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