From: richfaussette (RFaussette@aol.com)
Date: Fri Apr 18 2003 - 12:15:06 EDT
--- In evolutionary-psychology@yahoogroups.com, "Ian Pitchford"
<ian.pitchford@s...> wrote:
Public release date: 17-Apr-2003
Contact: Andy Fell ahfell@u... 530-752-4533
University of California - Davis
http://www.ucdavis.edu/
Fast changing gene drives species split
A gene that stops different species of fruit flies from interbreeding
is evolving faster than other genes, according to researchers at the
University of California, Davis, and the University of Cambridge in
England. The findings may help scientists understand how new species
evolve from existing ones.
The offspring of matings between different species are often sterile,
like mules, or don't form viable animals at all. This incompatibility
is important for evolution, as new species form when they are
genetically cut off from their close relatives. Over 60 years ago,
geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky proposed that matings between
closely related species would cause harmful or lethal genetic effects
in the offspring, preventing interbreeding and driving the two
species apart.
Daniel Barbash, a postgraduate researcher at UC Davis, together with
postgraduate researchers Dominic Siino and Aaron Tarone at UC Davis
and John Roote, a genetics researcher at Cambridge University,
studied a gene called Hybrid male rescue (Hmr) in the fruit fly
Drosophila melanogaster and three close relatives.
When D. melanogaster mates with these related species, which
separated only two million to three million years ago, female
offspring are sterile and male offspring die.
Barbash and colleagues isolated and compared the Hmr genes from the
different flies and found that they were getting more different, more
quickly than other genes. Almost 8 percent of the genetic code had
changes that would alter the protein made by Hmr.
"This is one of the most diverse proteins we've seen in this species
comparison," Barbash said.
The researchers found that the Hmr protein belongs to a family of
proteins that bind to DNA and control how it is copied.
The work is published online April 7 in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences of the USA.
--- End forwarded message ---
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