Segregation distortion causes large-scale differences between male and female genomes in hybrid ants.

ABSTRACT: Hybridization in isolated populations can lead either to hybrid breakdown and extinction or in some cases to speciation. The basis of hybrid breakdown lies in genetic incompatibilities between diverged genomes. In social Hymenoptera, the consequences of hybridization can differ from those in other animals because of haplodiploidy and sociality. Selection pressures differ between sexes because males are haploid and females are diploid. Furthermore, sociality and group living may allow survival of hybrid genotypes. We show that hybridization in Formica ants has resulted in a stable situation in which the males form two highly divergent gene pools whereas all the females are hybrids. This causes an exceptional situation with large-scale differences between male and female genomes. The genotyp

SUBMITTER: Kulmuni J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2867678 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature