Mating behavior in allopatric and sympatric postzygotically isolated populations of the model Saccharomyces paradoxus

了解物种形成的过程是进化研究的一个主要目标；目前，我们的大部分知识来自于植物和动物的研究。微生物物种构成了世界上大部分的生物多样性，但由于其中许多很难分离和培养，人们对它们如何相互作用知之甚少。这项研究将调查可能正在经历物种形成的有性酵母的自然种群之间的相互作用。将测试单个细胞在相同和其他种群的潜在配偶之间的偏好--这是微生物生态学的一种新方法--以确定种群之间生殖隔离的机制。然后，负责酵母细胞识别和与适当交配伙伴交流能力的基因变体将被识别和研究。这项研究可能提供微生物物种进化的第一个例子，这种差异允许生态上相似和密切相关的种群共存。此外，了解微生物种群和物种之间的细胞间交流对于在重要背景下跨物种传播遗传物质具有重要意义，例如致病和非致病真菌物种之间的毒力基因传递。在一个无风险的系统中研究这些基本过程提供了一个了解它们的宝贵机会。

Understanding the process of speciation is a major goal of evolutionary research; currently, most of our knowledge comes from plant and animal studies. Microbial species make up most of the world's biodiversity, but because many are hard to isolate and culture, little is known about how they interact. This research will investigate interactions among natural populations of the sexual yeast Saccharomyces paradoxus that may be undergoing speciation. Individual cells will be tested for preferences among potential mates from the same and other populations - a new approach in microbial ecology - to determine the mechanism underlying reproductive isolation between populations. The variants of genes responsible for a yeast cell's ability to identify and communicate with an appropriate mating partner will then be identified and studied.This research may provide the first example in a microbial species of the evolution of differences that allow ecologically similar and closely related populations to co-exist. Furthermore, understanding cell-to-cell communication between microbial populations and species has implications for the spread of genetic material across species boundaries in important contexts such as the passage of virulence genes between pathogenic and non-pathogenic fungal species. Studying these basic processes in a risk-free system offers a valuable opportunity to understand them.