Misregulation of spermatogenesis genes in Drosophila hybrids is lineage‐specific and driven by the combined effects of sterility and fast male regulatory divergence

Hybrid male sterility is a common outcome of crosses between different species. Gene expression studies have found that a number of spermatogenesis genes are differentially expressed in sterile hybrid males, compared with parental species. Late‐stage sperm development genes are particularly likely t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of evolutionary biology 2014-09, Vol.27 (9), p.1775-1783
Main Authors: Gomes, S, Civetta, A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Chimera
crossing
divergent evolution
Drosophila
Drosophila - genetics
Evolution
faster male
Female
Fertility
Gene expression
Gene Expression Regulation
genes
hybrids
Hypotheses
Infertility, Male - genetics
Insects
Male
male fertility
males
misregulation
phylogeny
Sperm Motility - genetics
Spermatogenesis
Spermatogenesis - genetics
spermatozoa
sterility
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Summary:Hybrid male sterility is a common outcome of crosses between different species. Gene expression studies have found that a number of spermatogenesis genes are differentially expressed in sterile hybrid males, compared with parental species. Late‐stage sperm development genes are particularly likely to be misexpressed, with fewer early‐stage genes affected. Thus, a link has been posited between misexpression and sterility. A more recent alternative explanation for hybrid gene misexpression has been that it is independent of sterility and driven by divergent evolution of male‐specific regulatory elements between species (faster male hypothesis). The faster male hypothesis predicts that misregulation of spermatogenesis genes should be independent of sterility and approximately the same in both hybrids, whereas sterility should only affect gene expression in sterile hybrids. To test the faster male hypothesis vs. the effect of sterility on gene misexpression, we analyse spermatogenesis gene expression in different species pairs of the Drosophila phylogeny, where hybrid male sterility occurs in only one direction of the interspecies cross (i.e. unidirectional sterility). We find significant differences among genes in misexpression with effects that are lineage‐specific and caused by sterility or fast male regulatory divergence.
ISSN:1010-061X
1420-9101
DOI:10.1111/jeb.12428