Genetics of Hybrid Incompatibility in Nasonia

9981634Werren就其本质而言，杂交致死涉及基因之间的相互作用。杂种致死率在其自身的遗传背景下不会造成致死率，但在杂交种中，由于来自不同物种的基因之间的负相互作用，确实会造成致死率。由于这个原因，对杂交致死动物的基因研究可以用来揭示基因相互作用的“网络”。本项目将研究两种纳索尼亚昆虫杂交致死的遗传基础。这种昆虫特别适合研究复杂的基因相互作用，因为雄性是单倍体（只有一组染色体），使遗传分析更加简单。基本目标是(a)对导致杂交致死率的相互作用基因进行遗传表征，(b)为将来的克隆绘制杂交致死率的精细地图。这项研究的长期目标是克隆和测序与杂交致死有关的基因，并确定这些基因如何相互作用。结果将提供有关导致致死率的遗传相互作用性质的重要信息。此外，这些研究可以产生传统突变遗传方法无法检测到的新基因和基因相互作用。由于在不同生物（包括从昆虫到人类）中发现的基因功能惊人的保守性，在纳索尼亚发现的基因相互作用也可能发生在包括人类在内的哺乳动物中。

9981634Werren By its very nature, hybrid lethality involves interactions among genes. Hybrid lethals do not cause lethality in their own genetic background, but do cause lethality in hybrids, due to negative interactions among genes from the different species. For this reason, genetic studies of hybrid lethals can be used to uncover a "web" of genetic interactions. This project will investigate the genetic basis of hybrid lethality between two species of Nasonia insects. This insect is particularly suited for studying complex gene interactions because the males are haploid (have only one set of chromosomes), making the genetic analysis much more simple. Basic objectives are to (a) genetically characterize sets of interacting genes that cause hybrid lethality and (b) fine-scale map hybrid lethals for future cloning. The long-term objectives of this research are to clone and sequence genes involved in hybrid lethality and to determine how these genes interact. Results will yield important information on the nature of genetic interactions that cause lethality. In addition, these studies could yield novel genes and gene interactions not detected by traditional mutational genetic approaches. Because of the surprising conservation of gene function found across diverse organisms (including from insects to humans), gene interactions found in Nasonia could also occur in mammals, including humans.