Hutter P, Ashburner M
Nature. 1987;327(6120):331-3. doi: 10.1038/327331a0.
Post-mating mechanisms are central to the establishment of reproductive isolation between different, but closely related, species. Post-mating isolation mechanisms include hybrid breakdown, hybrid sterility and hybrid lethality and may, in some cases, be reinforced by pre-mating mechanisms such as ethological differentiation. In the Drosophila melanogaster species sub-group post-mating reproductive isolation is ensured by both the inviability and the sterility of hybrids. For example when D. melanogaster females are crossed to D. simulans males the hybrid progeny are normally all female; the hybrid males die as third instar larvae. The viable hybrid females are totally sterile. Little is known of the genetic basis for either hybrid sterility or hybrid inviability, although Coyne and others have begun a genetic analysis of the sterility of hybrids within this species sub-group. We have discovered a single gene difference that rescues the otherwise inviable male hybrids from the cross between D. melanogaster females and males of its three closest relatives. The study of this locus may shed light on the genetic control of both speciation and development.
交配后机制是不同但亲缘关系密切的物种之间建立生殖隔离的核心。交配后隔离机制包括杂种衰败、杂种不育和杂种致死，在某些情况下，可能会被诸如行为分化等交配前机制强化。在黑腹果蝇物种亚组中，杂种的 inviability 和不育确保了交配后的生殖隔离。例如，当黑腹果蝇雌性与拟果蝇雄性杂交时，杂种后代通常全是雌性；杂种雄性在三龄幼虫期死亡。存活的杂种雌性完全不育。尽管科因等人已经开始对该物种亚组内杂种不育的遗传基础进行分析，但对于杂种不育或杂种 inviability 的遗传基础知之甚少。我们发现了一个单一的基因差异，它拯救了黑腹果蝇雌性与其三个最亲近的近缘种雄性杂交产生的原本 inviable 的雄性杂种。对这个位点的研究可能会揭示物种形成和发育的遗传控制。
