HYBRID STERILITY AS A REPRODUCTIVE BARRIER ISOLATING THE TWO SUBSPECIES OF AEGILOPS GENICOLATA ROTH (GRAMINEAE)

1999 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shoji Ohta

To detect possible reproductive barriers isolating the two subspecies of Aegilops geniculata, ssp. gibberosa was crossed with ssp. geniculata. The two subspecies differ significantly in shape of spikes, spikelet density on spikes, and number of awns on empty glumes. The F hybrids were intermediate in morphology and almost completely sterile. A chromatid bridge with a fragment was observed at first anaphase (AI) of meiosis in some pollen mother cells (PMCs) of the F1 hybrids. Though multivalents were formed at first metaphase (MI) in all the PMCs of the F1 hybrids, the frequency was not higher than that in the intra-subspecific hybrids of ssp. geniculata. These results suggest that the intraspecific sterility is not caused by a gross chromosome differentiation. The hybrid sterility, which is an effective reproductive barrier isolating the two subspecies, might be caused by negative interaction(s) between genes of the two subspecies, or by small chromosomal rearrangements not detectable from chromosome pairing configuration at MI. It is strongly proposed that the delineation of species and infraspecific taxa in the polyploid species of the genus Aegilops is worthy of reassessment from a biosystematic viewpoint.

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piero Lamelza ◽  
Michael Ailion

ABSTRACTHow species arise is a fundamental question in biology. Species can be defined as populations of interbreeding individuals that are reproductively isolated from other such populations. Therefore, understanding how reproductive barriers evolve between populations is essential for understanding the process of speciation. Hybrid incompatibility (e.g. hybrid sterility and lethality) is a common and strong reproductive barrier in nature, but few studies have molecularly identified its genetic basis. Here we report a lethal incompatibility between two wild-isolates of the nematode Caenorhabditis nouraguensis. Hybrid inviability results from the incompatibility between a maternally inherited cytoplasmic factor from each strain and a recessive nuclear locus from the other. We have excluded the possibility that maternally inherited endosymbiotic bacteria cause the incompatibility by treating both strains with tetracycline and show that hybrid death is unaffected. Furthermore, cytoplasmic-nuclear incompatibility commonly occurs between other wild-isolates, indicating that this is a significant reproductive barrier within C. nouraguensis. We hypothesize that the maternally inherited cytoplasmic factor is the mitochondrial genome and that mitochondrial dysfunction underlies hybrid death. This system has the potential to shed light on the dynamics of divergent mitochondrial-nuclear coevolution and its role in promoting speciation.


The Nucleus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fajarudin Ahmad ◽  
Yuyu S. Poerba ◽  
Gert H. J. Kema ◽  
Hans de Jong

AbstractBreeding of banana is hampered by its genetic complexity, structural chromosome rearrangements and different ploidy levels. Various scientific disciplines, including cytogenetics, linkage mapping, and bioinformatics, are helpful tools in characterising cultivars and wild relatives used in crossing programs. Chromosome analysis still plays a pivotal role in studying hybrid sterility and structural and numerical variants. In this study, we describe the optimisation of the chromosome spreading protocol of pollen mother cells focusing on the effects of standard fixation methods, duration of the pectolytic enzyme treatment and advantages of fluorescence microscopy of DAPI stained cell spreads. We demonstrate the benefits of this protocol on meiotic features of five wild diploid Musa acuminata bananas and a diploid (AA) cultivar banana “Rejang”, with particular attention on pairing configurations and chromosome transmission that may be indicative for translocations and inversions. Pollen slides demonstrate regular-shaped spores except “Rejang”, which shows fertile pollen grains of different size and sterile pollen grains, suggesting partial sterility and unreduced gamete formation that likely resulted from restitutional meiotic divisions.


Genetics ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 152 (2) ◽  
pp. 713-727 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loren H Rieseberg ◽  
Jeannette Whitton ◽  
Keith Gardner

Abstract Genetic analyses of reproductive barriers represent one of the few methods by which theories of speciation can be tested. However, genetic study is often restricted to model organisms that have short generation times and are easily propagated in the laboratory. Replicate hybrid zones with a diversity of recombinant genotypes of varying age offer increased resolution for genetic mapping experiments and expand the pool of organisms amenable to genetic study. Using 88 markers distributed across 17 chromosomes, we analyze the introgression of chromosomal segments of Helianthus petiolaris into H. annuus in three natural hybrid zones. Introgression was significantly reduced relative to neutral expectations for 26 chromosomal segments, suggesting that each segment contains one or more factors that contribute to isolation. Pollen sterility is significantly associated with 16 of these 26 segments, providing a straightforward explanation of why this subset of blocks is disadvantageous in hybrids. In addition, comparison of rates of introgression across colinear vs. rearranged chromosomes indicates that close to 50% of the barrier to introgression is due to chromosomal rearrangements. These results demonstrate the utility of hybrid zones for identifying factors contributing to isolation and verify the prediction of increased resolution relative to controlled crosses.


Genetics ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 97 (2) ◽  
pp. 391-414
Author(s):  
Jan Dvořák ◽  
Patrick E McGuire

ABSTRACT Wheat cultivar Chinese Spring (Triticum aestivum L. em. Thell.) was crossed with cultivars Hope, Cheyenne and Timstein. In all three hybrids, the frequencies of pollen mother cells (PMCs) with univalents at metaphase I (MI) were higher than those in the parental cultivars. No multivalents were observed in the hybrids, indicating that the cultivars do not differ by translocations. Thirty-one Chinese Spring telosomic lines were then crossed with substitution lines in which single chromosomes of the three cultivars were substituted for their Chinese Spring homologues. The telosomic lines were also crossed with Chinese Spring. Data were collected on the frequencies (% of PMCs) of pairing of the telesomes with their homologues at MI and the regularity of pairing of the remaining 20 pairs of Chinese Spring chromosomes in the monotelodisomics obtained from these crosses. The reduced MI pairing in the intercultivar hybrids was caused primarily by chromosome differentiation, rather than by specific genes. Because the differentiation involved a large part of the chromosome complement in each hybrid, it was concluded that it could not be caused by structural changes such as inversions or translocations. In each case, the differentiation appeared to be unevenly distributed among the three wheat genomes. It is proposed that the same kind of differentiation, although of greater magnitude, differentiates homoeologous chromosomes and is responsible, together with structural differentiation, for poor chromosome pairing in interspecific hybrids.


1981 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Dvořák

Triticum aestivum L. em Thell ditelosomics 7AL and 7DS and T. aestivum-Elytrigia elongata (Host) Holub (2n = 2x = 14) ditelosomic additions were crossed with "E. elongata 4x" (2n = 4x = 28), E. caespitosa (C. Koch) Nevski (2n = 4x = 28), and E. intermedia (Host) Nevski (2n = 6x = 42). The effect of each Elytrigia genotype on homoeologous (heterogenetic) chromosome pairing was assessed by comparing the pairing frequencies of T. aestivum cv. Chinese Spring telosomes 7AL and 7DS in the hybrids with the pairing frequency of telosome 7AL in haploid Chinese Spring. The genotype of "E. elongata 4x" had no effect on heterogenetic pairing in the hybrids. Although some genotypes of E. caespitosa and E. intermedia promoted heterogenetic pairing in the hybrids, others had no effect. Telosome VS of E. elongata interacted in a complementary fashion with the genotype of "E. elongata 4x," but not with the genotypes of Chinese Spring and E. caespitosa, and it promoted heterogenetic pairing. In hybrids in which the wheat diploidizing genes were active at the normal level, the E. elongata telosomes paired with chromosomes of "E. elongata 4x" in 5.8% to 24.6% of the cells, with chromosomes of E. caespitosa in 0.0% to 1.0% of the cells, and with chromosomes of E. intermedia in 0.0% to 2.8% of the cells. A model of chromosome differentiation is discussed and special attention is devoted to the origin of diploid-like pairing in polyploid species.


1983 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 530-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Dvořák

Data on chromosome pairing in haploids and interspecific hybrids of Solanum, sect. Petota reported in the literature were used to determine whether the diploidlike chromosome pairing that occurs in some of the polyploid species of the section is regulated by the genotype or brought about by some other mechanism. The following trends emerged from these data. Most of the polyploid × polyploid hybrids had high numbers of univalents, which seemed to indicate that the polyploid species were constructed from diverse genomes. Haploids, except for those derived from S. tuberosum, had incomplete chromosome pairing. All hybrids from diploid × diploid crosses had more or less regular chromosome pairing, which suggested that all investigated diploid species have the same genome. Likewise, hybrids from polyploid × diploid crosses had high levels of chromosome pairing. These paradoxical results are best explained if it is assumed that (i) the genotypes of most polyploid species, but not those of the diploid species, suppress heterogenetic pairing, (ii) that nonstructural chromosome differentiation is present among the genomes of both diploid and polyploid species, and (iii) the presence of the genome of a diploid species in a polyploid × diploid hybrid results in promotion of heterogenetic pairing. It is, therefore, concluded that heterogenetic pairing in most of the polyploid species is genetically suppressed.


1979 ◽  
Vol 57 (20) ◽  
pp. 2097-2106 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. J. F. Fisher ◽  
A. Warner ◽  
E. M. Reimer

Apetaly is usually a rare variation in populations of the widespread hexaploid alpine Ranunculus eschscholtzii Schlecht. In certain high rainfall sections of the western Cascade Mountains of Washington, where populations of the hexaploid have been found in mixed association with those of a diploid relative, R. suksdorfii (elsewhere ecologically well separated though sympatric), the apetalous condition almost completely replaces the normal form. Any petal-bearing flowers of the hexaploid attract the flying pollen vectors (mainly syrphids) which also visit the overwhelmingly more numerous diploid species. Any resulting hybrids between the two species are sterile. Apetalous flowers are avoided by the syrphid pollinators. These flowers, nevertheless, regularly produce full sets of viable fruits. This may be attributed to the regular foraging visits of large terrestrial ants. The apetalous condition of R. eschscholtzii appears to have replaced the normal form in the high rainfall areas because only it can continue to reproduce and maintain the species in the presence of R. suksdorfii and the syrphid pollinators. This regional intensification of reproductive barriers between species already genetically isolated by their difference in ploidy, and between which hybrids have zero fitness, is interpreted as a case of character displacement involving both competition for a resource (pollinators) and hybrid sterility.


Evolution ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 67 (9) ◽  
pp. 2547-2560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lila Fishman ◽  
Angela Stathos ◽  
Paul M. Beardsley ◽  
Charles F. Williams ◽  
Jeffrey P. Hill

eLife ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E Zanders ◽  
Michael T Eickbush ◽  
Jonathan S Yu ◽  
Ji-Won Kang ◽  
Kyle R Fowler ◽  
...  

Hybrid sterility is one of the earliest postzygotic isolating mechanisms to evolve between two recently diverged species. Here we identify causes underlying hybrid infertility of two recently diverged fission yeast species Schizosaccharomyces pombe and S. kambucha, which mate to form viable hybrid diploids that efficiently complete meiosis, but generate few viable gametes. We find that chromosomal rearrangements and related recombination defects are major but not sole causes of hybrid infertility. At least three distinct meiotic drive alleles, one on each S. kambucha chromosome, independently contribute to hybrid infertility by causing nonrandom spore death. Two of these driving loci are linked by a chromosomal translocation and thus constitute a novel type of paired meiotic drive complex. Our study reveals how quickly multiple barriers to fertility can arise. In addition, it provides further support for models in which genetic conflicts, such as those caused by meiotic drive alleles, can drive speciation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yukie Sato ◽  
Satoshi Fujiwara ◽  
Martijn Egas ◽  
Tomoko Matsuda ◽  
Tetsuo Gotoh

Abstract Background Evolution of reproductive isolation is an important process, generating biodiversity and driving speciation. To better understand this process, it is necessary to investigate factors underlying reproductive isolation through various approaches but also in various taxa. Previous studies, mainly focusing on diploid animals, supported the prevalent view that reproductive barriers evolve gradually as a by-product of genetic changes accumulated by natural selection by showing a positive relationship between the degree of reproductive isolation and genetic distance. Haplodiploid animals are expected to generate additional insight into speciation, but few studies investigated the prevalent view in haplodiploid animals. In this study, we investigate whether the relationship also holds in a haplodiploid spider mite, Amphitetranychus viennensis (Zacher). Results We sampled seven populations of the mite in the Palaearctic region, measured their genetic distance (mtDNA) and carried out cross experiments with all combinations. We analyzed how lack of fertilization rate (as measure of prezygotic isolation) as well as hybrid inviability and hybrid sterility (as measures of postzygotic isolation) varies with genetic distance. We found that the degree of reproductive isolation varies among cross combinations, and that all three measures of reproductive isolation have a positive relationship with genetic distance. Based on the mtDNA marker, lack of fertilization rate, hybrid female inviability and hybrid female sterility were estimated to be nearly complete (99.0–99.9% barrier) at genetic distances of 0.475–0.657, 0.150–0.209 and 0.145–0.210, respectively. Besides, we found asymmetries in reproductive isolation. Conclusions The prevalent view on the evolution of reproductive barriers is supported in the haplodiploid spider mite we studied here. According to the estimated minimum genetic distance for total reproductive isolation in parent population crosses in this study and previous work, a genetic distance of 0.15–0.21 in mtDNA (COI) appears required for speciation in spider mites. Variations and asymmetries in the degree of reproductive isolation highlight the importance of reinforcement of prezygotic reproductive isolation through incompatibility and the importance of cytonuclear interactions for reproductive isolation in haplodiploid spider mites.


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