Genetic Structure of a Primate Hybrid Zone

当两个自然种群杂交时，它们往往会变得基因同质化。 然而，如果混合血统的个体相对不适合，一个狭窄的、介于两者之间的杂交区可能会持续几代，过滤种群之间的基因流动。 许多这样的杂交区是已知的，但很少涉及灵长类动物，即使杂交在人类史前史上可能是重要的。 我们的研究汇集了纽约大学、圣路易斯的华盛顿大学和埃塞俄比亚的阿迪斯大学的研究人员。 它将强大的遗传分析新技术与实地观察相结合，以调查两个狒狒种群之间的杂交，这两个种群在行为和外观上都有显着差异，它们的范围在埃塞俄比亚相遇。 我们已经收集并储存了大约1000只狒狒的DNA，共四代。 再过三个田间季节，我们将完成这一数据集，并通过绘制更广泛的杂交区图来阐明生态对杂交的影响。 将对每只动物进行高变DNA标记物分型。 它们的分布将显示社会行为如何影响种群的遗传结构，揭示种群间迁移的模式，并表明杂交后代的达尔文适应性。 其结果将是一个独特的图片动态的自然杂交和遗传学的进化分歧。

Jolly/Disotell/Phillips-Conroy When two natural populations interbreed, they tend to become genetically homogenized. If, however, individuals of mixed ancestry are relatively unfit, a narrow, intervening hybrid zone may persist for generations, filtering gene-flow between the populations. Many such hybrid zones are known, but few involve primates, even though hybridization was probably important in human prehistory. Our study brings together investigators at New York University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. It combines powerful, new techniques of genetic analysis with field observation to investigate hybridization between two baboon populations, strikingly different in both behavior and appearance, whose ranges meet in Ethiopia. We have already collected and stored DNA from about a thousand baboons, of four generations. In three more field seasons we shall complete this dataset, and clarify ecological influences on hybridization by mapping the hybrid zone more widely. Each animal will be typed for hypervariable DNA markers. Their distribution will show how social behavior affects the genetic structure of the populations, reveal patterns of inter-group migration, and indicate the darwinian fitness of cross-breeders and their offspring. The result will be a unique picture of the dynamics of natural hybridization and the genetics of evolutionary divergence.