A line of salamanders of the Ambystoma genus are all female. They produce all female offspring, and have been doing that for millions of years. Yet their offspring are not clones, even if their mitochondrial DNA is always the same. These salamanders mate with males from other species of the same genus, and incorporate their genetic material into the next generation of females. The scientists who studied this phenomenon call it “kleptogenesis” as it involves stealing genetic material from a different species.
The unisex Ambystoma are weirder by far than other animals that are made up of only females. In some other female-only species, the females mate with related species because sperm kickstarts the process, then they reject all the males' DNA. In this salamander, the mother picks and chooses which parts of the male's genome will be incorporated into her female offspring. If she has mated with three males, she can incorporate the genes of one, or two, or three of them into her offspring, plus her own, or possibly delete her own, or use any combination of the reproductive DNA she has available. While this hybridization keeps the gene pool fresh, it does not change their reproductive behavior, not does it ever introduce males into the line.
If this sounds complicated, it is. The research paper, with its biology jargon, is even more confusing, but you can read a relatively simple description of just how weird these unisexual salamanders are when it comes to their designer babies at Popular Science. -via Metafilter
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