Triploid progeny of pumpkinseed X green sunfish hybrids

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Abstract
Female pumpkinseed X green sunfish hybrids from Hall's Pond, Connecticut, were backcrossed to male pumpkinseed and male green sunfish. Offspring from these crosses are triploid and starch-gel electrophoresls shows they carry a double dose of the maternal genome. Thus, the female hybrids must produce unreduced, diploid eggs that are subsequently fertilized to yield triploid progeny. This is similar to the situation in parthenogenetic and gynogenetic vertebrates, where unreduced gametes are produced that develop, without fertilization, into female clones. However, because the fertilized eggs of the female sunfish yield sterile triploids, a self-perpetuating diploid unisexual “species” has not arisen from these hybrids.