Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

A mitochondrial genetic divergence proxy predicts the reproductive compatibility of mammalian hybrids

Allen, Richard; Ryan, Hannah; Davis, Brian W.; King, Charlotte; Frantz, Laurent; Irving-Pease, Evan; Barnett, Ross; Linderholm, Anna; Loog, Liisa; Haile, James; Lebrasseur, Ophélie; White, Mark; Kitchener, Andrew C.; Murphy, William J.; Larson, Greger

A mitochondrial genetic divergence proxy predicts the reproductive compatibility of mammalian hybrids Thumbnail


Authors

Richard Allen

Hannah Ryan

Brian W. Davis

Charlotte King

Laurent Frantz

Evan Irving-Pease

Ross Barnett

Anna Linderholm

Liisa Loog

James Haile

Ophélie Lebrasseur

Andrew C. Kitchener

William J. Murphy

Greger Larson



Abstract

Numerous pairs of evolutionarily divergent mammalian species have been shown to produce hybrid offspring. In some cases, F1 hybrids are able to produce F2s through matings with F1s. In other instances, the hybrids are only able to produce offspring themselves through backcrosses with a parent species owing to unisexual sterility (Haldane's Rule). Here, we explicitly tested whether genetic distance, computed from mitochondrial and nuclear genes, can be used as a proxy to predict the relative fertility of the hybrid offspring resulting from matings between species of terrestrial mammals. We assessed the proxy's predictive power using a well-characterized felid hybrid system, and applied it to modern and ancient hominins. Our results revealed a small overlap in mitochondrial genetic distance values that distinguish species pairs whose calculated distances fall within two categories: those whose hybrid offspring follow Haldane's Rule, and those whose hybrid F1 offspring can produce F2s. The strong correlation between genetic distance and hybrid fertility demonstrated here suggests that this proxy can be employed to predict whether the hybrid offspring of two mammalian species will follow Haldane's Rule.

Citation

Allen, R., Ryan, H., Davis, B. W., King, C., Frantz, L., Irving-Pease, E., …Larson, G. (2020). A mitochondrial genetic divergence proxy predicts the reproductive compatibility of mammalian hybrids. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 287(1928), Article 20200690. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.0690

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 6, 2020
Online Publication Date Jun 3, 2020
Publication Date 2020-06
Deposit Date Nov 6, 2020
Publicly Available Date Nov 6, 2020
Journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Print ISSN 0962-8452
Electronic ISSN 1471-2954
Publisher The Royal Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 287
Issue 1928
Article Number 20200690
DOI https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.0690

Files





You might also like



Downloadable Citations