Parthenogenesis as a Solution to Hybrid Sterility: The Mechanistic Basis of Meiotic Distortions in Clonal and Sterile Hybrids.

ABSTRACT: Hybrid sterility is a hallmark of speciation, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we report that speciation may regularly proceed through a stage at which gene flow is completely interrupted, but hybrid sterility occurs only in male hybrids whereas female hybrids reproduce asexually. We analyzed gametogenic pathways in hybrids between the fish species Cobitis elongatoides and C. taenia, and revealed that male hybrids were sterile owing to extensive asynapsis and crossover reduction among heterospecific chromosomal pairs in their gametes, which was subsequently followed by apoptosis. We found that polyploidization allowed pairing between homologous chromosomes and therefore partially rescued the bivalent formation and crossover rates in trip

SUBMITTER: Dedukh D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7404241 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature