Inheritance in the water frog Rana ridibunda Pallas, 1771 - Is it Mendelian or hemiclonal?

The genome of Rana ridibunda has been detected in all known hybridogenetic water frog systems. This raises the question whether R. ridibunda is pre-adapted to reproduce hemiclonally by hybridogenesis. We allozymatically compared genotypes of primary oocytes and somatic cells of R. ridibunda females from several sites in southern France. In case of hemiclonal reproduction only one allele per locus is expected to be detectable in oocytes. However, patterns detected from oocytes of analysed females were not different from those of sexually reproducing water frogs. We therefore conclude that R. ridibunda in southern France reproduces sexually and is not pre-adapted to hemiclonal reproduction.