1. ¹Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
2. ²Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Correspondence: Dr CR Landry, Département de Biochimie, Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada H3C 3J7. E-mail: clandry@post.harvard.edu; Dr JM Ranz, Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EH, UK. E-mail: jmr68@mole.bio.cam.ac.uk

Received 9 March 2007; Revised 12 June 2007; Accepted 2 July 2007; Published online 8 August 2007.

Abstract

In interspecific hybrids, novel phenotypes often emerge from the interaction of two divergent genomes. Interactions between the two transcriptional networks are assumed to contribute to these unpredicted new phenotypes by inducing novel patterns of gene expression. Here we provide a review of the recent literature on the accumulation of regulatory incompatibilities. We review specific examples of regulatory incompatibilities reported at particular loci as well as genome-scale surveys of gene expression in interspecific hybrids. Finally, we consider and preview novel technologies that could help decipher how divergent transcriptional networks interact in hybrids between species.