Collaborative Research:Dynamics of Genes in Mouse Hybrid Zones

进化生物学的一个中心目标是了解物种在繁殖上彼此隔离的方式。解决这个问题的一个强有力的方法是研究自然发生的杂交种群。特别地，关于生殖隔离的遗传学推论可以通过研究基因在两个物种间杂交区的差异运动来作出。与不导致生殖隔离的基因相比，导致生殖隔离的基因在杂交区之间的移动预计会更不自由。本研究的主要目的是评估在中欧自然杂交的两种欧洲家鼠（小家鼠和家鼠）之间生殖隔离的基因数量和相对贡献。来自德国杂交区两个样本的大约900只小鼠将对已知染色体位置的68个遗传标记进行基因分型，并将对这些标记在该区域的相对运动进行统计分析。由于小鼠基因组的完整序列将很快得到，这项研究将为确定与生殖隔离有关的特定基因奠定基础。这项研究不仅意义重大，而且独一无二，因为它利用了大量的遗传信息来解决生物学中的一个基本问题，即物种形成的遗传基础。

A central goal of evolutionary biology is to understand the ways in which species become reproductively isolated from one another. One powerful approach to this problem involves the study of naturally occurring hybrid populations. In particular, inferences about the genetics of reproductive isolation can be made through the study of differential movement of genes across a hybrid zone between two species. Genes contributing to reproductive isolation are expected to move less freely across a hybrid zone than genes that do not contribute to reproductive isolation. The primary objective of the proposed research is to assess the number and relative contribution of genes to reproductive isolation between two European house mouse species, Mus musculus and M. domesticus, that naturally hybridize in central Europe. Approximately 900 mice from two transects across this hybrid zone in Germany will be genotyped for 68 genetic markers of known chromosomal location and a statistical analysis of the relative movement of these markers across the zone will be made.Because the complete sequence of the mouse genome will be available soon, this research will lay the groundwork for identifying specific genes involved in reproductive isolation. The study is both significant and unique in its utilization of a vast amount of genetic information to address a fundamental problem in biology, that is, the genetic basis of speciation.