REU: Mitochondrial-Nuclear Interactions in Hybrid Zones

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Hybrid zones between genetically different populations or species provide an unusual opportunity to study the speciation process. A number of phenomena in hybrid zones can influence how speciation takes place. The availability of new molecular markers of the DNA in varied organisms provides an unusual opportunity to study hybrid zones. Mitochondria are housed in the cell cytoplasm and carry out respiration in all eukaryotic cells; these structures have their own DNA distinct from chromosomal DNA. In studies of hybrid zones the availability of maternally transmitted genetic markers, as provided in mtDNA, is particularly important. The maternal inheritance of mtDNA makes it analogous to the pattern of inheritance of surnames in many human societies, and just as surnames allow the tracing of human genealogies, so does mtDNA allow the tracing of matriarchical pedigrees in virtually any higher organism. The aims of this proposal are to: (1) develop novel measures of mitochondrial-nuclear associations; (2) determine the dynamics of these associations; (3) introduce novel statistical procedures for estimating these measures of association; (4) apply this new methodology to several real and hypothetical data sets on hybrid zones. Several hybrid zones are of considerable practical importance. The recently introduced species of fire ants, Solenopsis invicta and S. richteri, are a major agricultural pest in the Southeast. Similar concerns arise in the biological control of other agriculturally or medically important species complexes, such as the screw worm or the "yellow-fever" mosquito, Aedes aegypti.