Parthenogenetic species are usually considered to be short‐lived due to the accumulation of adverse mutations, lack of genetic variability, and inability to adapt to changing environment. If so, one may expect that the phenotype of clonal organisms may reflect such genetic and/or environmental stress. To test this hypothesis, we compared the developmental stability of bisexual and parthenogenetic lizards of the genus Darevskia. We assessed asymmetries in three meristic traits: ventral, preanal, and supratemporal scales. Our results suggest that the amount of ventral and preanal asymmetries is significantly higher in clones compared with their maternal, but not paternal, progenitor species. However, it is questionable, whether this is a consequence of clonality, as it may be considered a mild form of outbreeding depression as well. Moreover, most ventral asymmetries were found in the bisexual species Darevskia valentini. We suggest that greater differences in asymmetry levels among bisexuals may be, for instance, a consequence of the population size: the smaller the population, the higher the inbreeding and the developmental instability. On the basis of the traits examined in this study, the parthenogens do not seem to be of significantly poorer quality.

中文翻译：

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比较Darevskia属单性和双性岩石蜥蜴的发育稳定性。

单性生殖物种通常被认为是短命的，原因是不良突变的积累，缺乏遗传变异性以及无法适应不断变化的环境。如果是这样，人们可以期望克隆生物的表型可以反映这种遗传和/或环境压力。为了验证该假设，我们比较了Darevskia属的双性和单性蜥蜴的发育稳定性。我们评估了三个综合特征的不对称性：腹侧，肛门前和肱骨上量表。我们的结果表明，与母体而非父系祖先物种相比，克隆中腹侧和肛门前不对称的数量明显更高。但是，这是否是克隆性的结果值得怀疑，因为它也可能被认为是轻微的近亲抑郁形式。此外，大多数腹侧不对称是在双性恋物种Darevskia valentini中发现的。我们建议双性恋者之间的不对称程度差异更大，例如，可能是人口规模的结果：人口越少，近亲繁殖和发育不稳定性越高。根据这项研究中检查的特征，单性生殖激素的质量似乎并不很差。