Gene regulation and speciation in house mice.

ABSTRACT: One approach to understanding the process of speciation is to characterize the genetic architecture of post-zygotic isolation. As gene regulation requires interactions between loci, negative epistatic interactions between divergent regulatory elements might underlie hybrid incompatibilities and contribute to reproductive isolation. Here, we take advantage of a cross between house mouse subspecies, where hybrid dysfunction is largely unidirectional, to test several key predictions about regulatory divergence and reproductive isolation. Regulatory divergence between Mus musculus musculus and M. m. domesticus was characterized by studying allele-specific expression in fertile hybrid males using mRNA-sequencing of whole testes. We found extensive regulatory divergence between M. m. musculus an

SUBMITTER: Mack KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4817769 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature