scholarly journals The role of meiotic drive in hybrid male sterility

2010 ◽  
Vol 365 (1544) ◽  
pp. 1265-1272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon R. McDermott ◽  
Mohamed A. F. Noor

Meiotic drive causes the distortion of allelic segregation away from Mendelian expected ratios, often also reducing fecundity and favouring the evolution of drive suppressors. If different species evolve distinct drive-suppressor systems, then hybrid progeny may be sterile as a result of negative interactions of these systems' components. Although the hypothesis that meiotic drive may contribute to hybrid sterility, and thus species formation, fell out of favour early in the 1990s, recent results showing an association between drive and sterility have resurrected this previously controversial idea. Here, we review the different forms of meiotic drive and their possible roles in speciation. We discuss the recent empirical evidence for a link between drive and hybrid male sterility, also suggesting a possible mechanistic explanation for this link in the context of chromatin remodelling. Finally, we revisit the population genetics of drive that allow it to contribute to speciation.

Author(s):  
Linda Hagberg ◽  
Enrique Celemin ◽  
Iker Irisarri ◽  
Oliver Hawlitschek ◽  
J L Bella ◽  
...  

Although the process of species formation is notoriously idiosyncratic, the observation of pervasive patterns of reproductive isolation across species pairs suggests that generalities, or “rules”, underlie species formation in all animals. Haldane’s rule states that whenever a sex is absent, rare or sterile in a cross between two taxa, that sex is usually the heterogametic sex. Yet, understanding how Haldane’s rule first evolves and whether it is associated to genome wide barriers to gene flow remains a challenging task because this rule is usually studied in highly divergent taxa that no longer hybridize in nature. Here, we address these questions using the meadow grasshopper Pseudochorthippus parallelus where populations that readily hybridize in two natural hybrid zones show hybrid male sterility in laboratorial crosses. Using mitochondrial data, we infer that such populations have diverged some 100,000 years ago, surviving multiple glacial periods in isolated Pleistocenic refugia. Nuclear data shows that secondary contact has led to extensive introgression throughout the species range, including between populations showing hybrid male sterility. We find repeatable patterns of genomic differentiation across the two hybrid zones, yet such patterns are consistent with shared genomic constraints across taxa rather than their role in reproductive isolation. Together, our results suggest that Haldane’s rule can evolve relatively quickly within species, particularly when associated to strong demographic changes. At such early stages of species formation, hybrid male sterility still permits extensive gene flow, allowing future studies to identify genomic regions associated with reproductive barriers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daven C. Presgraves ◽  
Colin D. Meiklejohn

The three fruitfly species of the Drosophila simulans clade— D. simulans, D. mauritiana, and D. sechellia— have served as important models in speciation genetics for over 40 years. These species are reproductively isolated by geography, ecology, sexual signals, postmating-prezygotic interactions, and postzygotic genetic incompatibilities. All pairwise crosses between these species conform to Haldane’s rule, producing fertile F1 hybrid females and sterile F1 hybrid males. The close phylogenetic proximity of the D. simulans clade species to the model organism, D. melanogaster, has empowered genetic analyses of their species differences, including reproductive incompatibilities. But perhaps no phenotype has been subject to more continuous and intensive genetic scrutiny than hybrid male sterility. Here we review the history, progress, and current state of our understanding of hybrid male sterility among the D. simulans clade species. Our aim is to integrate the available information from experimental and population genetics analyses bearing on the causes and consequences of hybrid male sterility. We highlight numerous conclusions that have emerged as well as issues that remain unresolved. We focus on the special role of sex chromosomes, the fine-scale genetic architecture of hybrid male sterility, and the history of gene flow between species. The biggest surprises to emerge from this work are that (i) genetic conflicts may be an important general force in the evolution of hybrid incompatibility, (ii) hybrid male sterility is polygenic with contributions of complex epistasis, and (iii) speciation, even among these geographically allopatric taxa, has involved the interplay of gene flow, negative selection, and positive selection. These three conclusions are marked departures from the classical views of speciation that emerged from the modern evolutionary synthesis.


eLife ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin D Meiklejohn ◽  
Emily L Landeen ◽  
Kathleen E Gordon ◽  
Thomas Rzatkiewicz ◽  
Sarah B Kingan ◽  
...  

During speciation, sex chromosomes often accumulate interspecific genetic incompatibilities faster than the rest of the genome. The drive theory posits that sex chromosomes are susceptible to recurrent bouts of meiotic drive and suppression, causing the evolutionary build-up of divergent cryptic sex-linked drive systems and, incidentally, genetic incompatibilities. To assess the role of drive during speciation, we combine high-resolution genetic mapping of X-linked hybrid male sterility with population genomics analyses of divergence and recent gene flow between the fruitfly species, Drosophila mauritiana and D. simulans. Our findings reveal a high density of genetic incompatibilities and a corresponding dearth of gene flow on the X chromosome. Surprisingly, we find that a known drive element recently migrated between species and, rather than contributing to interspecific divergence, caused a strong reduction in local sequence divergence, undermining the evolution of hybrid sterility. Gene flow can therefore mediate the effects of selfish genetic elements during speciation.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel E. Kerwin ◽  
Andrea L. Sweigart

ABSTRACTHybrid incompatibilities are a common correlate of genomic divergence and a potentially important contributor to reproductive isolation. However, we do not yet have a detailed understanding of how hybrid incompatibility loci function and evolve within their native species, or why they are dysfunctional in hybrids. Here, we explore these issues for a well-studied, two-locus hybrid incompatibility between hybrid male sterility 1 (hms1) and hybrid male sterility 2 (hms2) in the closely related yellow monkeyflower species Mimulus guttatus and M. nasutus. By performing reciprocal backcrosses with introgression lines, we find evidence for gametic expression of the hms1-hms2 incompatibility. Surprisingly, however, hybrid transmission ratios at hms1 do not reflect this incompatibility, suggesting additional mechanisms counteract the effects of gametic sterility. Indeed, our backcross experiment shows hybrid transmission bias toward M. guttatus through both pollen and ovules, an effect that is particularly strong when hms2 is homozygous for M. nasutus alleles. In contrast, we find little evidence for hms1 transmission bias in crosses within M. guttatus, providing no indication of selfish evolution at this locus. Although we do not yet have sufficient genetic resolution to determine if hybrid sterility and transmission ratio distortion map to the same loci, our preliminary fine-mapping uncovers a genetically independent hybrid lethality system involving at least two loci linked to hms1. This fine-scale dissection of transmission ratio distortion at hms1 and hms2 provides insight into genomic differentiation between closely related Mimulus species and reveals multiple mechanisms of hybrid dysfunction.


2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (7) ◽  
pp. 2084-2098 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel E Kerwin ◽  
Andrea L Sweigart

Abstract Divergence in gene expression regulation is common between closely related species and may give rise to incompatibilities in their hybrid progeny. In this study, we investigated the relationship between regulatory evolution within species and reproductive isolation between species. We focused on a well-studied case of hybrid sterility between two closely related yellow monkeyflower species, Mimulus guttatus and Mimulus nasutus, that is caused by two epistatic loci, hybrid male sterility 1 (hms1) and hybrid male sterility 2 (hms2). We compared genome-wide transcript abundance across male and female reproductive tissues (i.e., stamens and carpels) from four genotypes: M. guttatus, M. nasutus, and sterile and fertile progeny from an advanced M. nasutus–M. guttatus introgression line carrying the hms1–hms2 incompatibility. We observed substantial variation in transcript abundance between M. guttatus and M. nasutus, including distinct but overlapping patterns of tissue-biased expression, providing evidence for regulatory divergence between these species. We also found rampant genome-wide misexpression, but only in the affected tissues (i.e., stamens) of sterile introgression hybrids carrying incompatible alleles at hms1 and hms2. Examining patterns of allele-specific expression in sterile and fertile introgression hybrids, we found evidence for interspecific divergence in cis- and trans-regulation, including compensatory cis–trans mutations likely to be driven by stabilizing selection. Nevertheless, species divergence in gene regulatory networks cannot explain the vast majority of the gene misexpression we observe in Mimulus introgression hybrids, which instead likely manifests as a downstream consequence of sterility itself.


1997 ◽  
Vol 75 (7) ◽  
pp. 1109-1117 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. H. Gooding

Reciprocal crosses of Glossina palpalis gambiensis Vanderplank and Glossina palpalis palpalis (Robineau-Desvoidy) were carried out using flies that had four marker genes on the X chromosome, two in linkage group II and one in linkage group III: The results of the reciprocal crosses conformed to Haldane's rule: F1 males were sterile and most F1 females were fertile. F1 females mated to G. p. gambiensis were more likely to be fertilized than females that were mated to G. p. palpalis. In three of the four experiments, the fertility of backcross females was not significantly different from that of F1 females, and there was little evidence that specific chromosomal combinations influenced the fertility of backcross females. Intrachromosomal recombination was lower in hybrid females than in G. p. palpalis. The major genetic factor associated with sterility among backcross males was the presence of sex chromosomes from two subspecies; a minor factor was the number of heterozygous autosomes, but interactions between sex chromosomes and autosomes from different taxa did not contribute to hybrid male sterility. Evidence is presented that a major factor causing hybrid male sterility lies between the loci tan (an eye color) and Est-t (testicular esterase) on the X chromosome. The use of differences between the fertility of males produced by backcrossing F1 females to the two parental subspecies as indicators that other X chromosome loci have a role in hybrid sterility is discussed.


Genetics ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 138 (2) ◽  
pp. 329-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
M F Palopoli ◽  
C I Wu

Abstract To study the genetic differences responsible for the sterility of their male hybrids, we introgressed small segments of an X chromosome from Drosophila simulans into a pure Drosophila mauritiana genetic background, then assessed the fertility of males carrying heterospecific introgressions of varying size. Although this analysis examined less than 20% of the X chromosome (roughly 5% of the euchromatic portion of the D. simulans genome), and the segments were introgressed in only one direction, a minimum of four factors that contribute to hybrid male sterility were revealed. At least two of the factors exhibited strong epistasis: males carrying either factor alone were consistently fertile, whereas males carrying both factors together were always sterile. Distinct spermatogenic phenotypes were observed for sterile introgressions of different lengths, and it appeared that an interaction between introgressed segments also influenced the stage of spermatogenic defect. Males with one category of introgression often produced large quantities of motile sperm and were observed copulating, but never inseminated females. Evidently these two species have diverged at a large number of loci which have varied effects on hybrid male fertility. By extrapolation, we estimate that there are at least 40 such loci on the X chromosome alone. Because these species exhibit little DNA-sequence divergence at arbitrarily chosen loci, it seems unlikely that the extensive functional divergence observed could be due mainly to random genetic drift. Significant epistasis between conspecific genes appears to be a common component of hybrid sterility between recently diverged species of Drosophila. The linkage relationships of interacting factors could shed light on the role played by epistatic selection in the dynamics of the allele substitutions responsible for reproductive barriers between species.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin D. Meiklejohn ◽  
Emily L. Landeen ◽  
Kathleen E. Gordon ◽  
Thomas Rzatkiewicz ◽  
Sarah B. Kingan ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTDuring speciation, sex chromosomes often accumulate interspecific genetic incompatibilities faster than the rest of the genome. The drive theory posits that sex chromosomes are susceptible to recurrent bouts of meiotic drive and suppression, causing the evolutionary build-up of divergent cryptic sex-linked drive systems and, incidentally, genetic incompatibilities. To assess the role of drive during speciation, we combine high-resolution genetic mapping of X-linked hybrid male sterility with population genomics analyses of divergence and recent gene flow between the fruitfly species, Drosophila mauritiana and D. simulans. Our findings reveal a high density of genetic incompatibilities and a corresponding dearth of gene flow on the X chromosome. Surprisingly, we find that, rather than contributing to interspecific divergence, a known drive element has recently migrated between species, caused a strong reduction in local divergence, and undermined the evolution of hybrid sterility. Gene flow can therefore mediate the effects of selfish genetic elements during speciation.


PLoS Genetics ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. e1005073 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linbin Zhang ◽  
Tianai Sun ◽  
Fitsum Woldesellassie ◽  
Hailian Xiao ◽  
Yun Tao

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel E. Kerwin ◽  
Andrea L. Sweigart

ABSTRACTDivergence in gene expression regulation is common between closely related species and may give rise to incompatibilities in their hybrid progeny. In this study, we investigated the relationship between regulatory evolution within species and reproductive isolation between species. We focused on a well-studied case of hybrid sterility between Mimulus guttatus and M. nasutus, two closely related yellow monkeyflower species, that is caused by two epistatic loci, hybrid male sterility 1 (hms1) and hybrid male sterility 2 (hms2). We quantified and compared global transcript abundance across male and female reproductive tissues (i.e. stamens and carpels) of M. guttatus and M. nasutus, as well as sterile and fertile progeny from an advanced M. nasutus-M. guttatus introgression line that carries the hms1-hms2 incompatibility. We observed substantial variation in transcript abundance between M. guttatus and M. nasutus, including distinct but overlapping patterns of tissue-biased expression, providing evidence for regulatory divergence between these species. Furthermore, we found pervasive genome-wide misexpression exclusively associated with hybrid sterility – only observed in the affected tissues (i.e. stamens) of sterile introgression hybrids. Examining patterns of allele-specific expression in sterile and fertile hybrids, we found evidence of cis- and trans- regulatory divergence, as well as cis-trans compensatory evolution (likely to be driven by stabilizing selection). However, regulatory divergence does not appear to cause misexpression in sterile hybrids, which instead likely manifests as a downstream consequence of sterility itself.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document