Murphy Helen A, Kuehne Heidi A, Francis Chantal A, Sniegowski Paul D
Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA19103, USA.
Biol Lett. 2006 Dec 22;2(4):553-6. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2006.0534.
In sexual microbes, mating occurs by fusion of individual cells. This complete fitness investment suggests that cell behaviour could potentially mediate prezygotic isolation between microbial species, a topic about which very little is known. To investigate this possibility, we conducted individual cell mate choice trials and mass-culture mating propensity assays with isolates from sympatric natural populations of the closely related yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces paradoxus. Although we found no evidence for active species recognition in mate choice, we observed a marked difference in mating propensity between these two species. We briefly discuss the possibility that this mating propensity difference may contribute to reproductive isolation between S. cerevisiae and S. paradoxus in nature.
在有性微生物中，交配通过单个细胞的融合发生。这种对适应性的完全投入表明，细胞行为可能潜在地介导微生物物种之间的合子前隔离，而关于这个主题人们知之甚少。为了研究这种可能性，我们对来自密切相关的酿酒酵母和奇异酵母同域自然种群的分离株进行了单细胞配偶选择试验和大规模培养交配倾向测定。虽然我们在配偶选择中没有发现积极物种识别的证据，但我们观察到这两个物种在交配倾向方面存在显著差异。我们简要讨论了这种交配倾向差异可能有助于酿酒酵母和奇异酵母在自然界中生殖隔离的可能性。
