Review

Nature Reviews Genetics 8, 382-393 (May 2007) | doi:10.1038/nrg2082

Hybrid necrosis: autoimmunity as a potential gene-flow barrier in plant species

Kirsten Bomblies1 & Detlef Weigel1  About the authors

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Ecological factors, hybrid sterility and differences in ploidy levels are well known for contributing to gene-flow barriers in plants. Another common postzygotic incompatibility, hybrid necrosis, has received comparatively little attention in the evolutionary genetics literature. Hybrid necrosis is associated with a suite of phenotypic characteristics that are similar to those elicited in response to various environmental stresses, including pathogen attack. The genetic architecture is generally simple, and complies with the Bateson–Dobzhansky–Muller model for hybrid incompatibility between species. We survey the extensive literature on this topic and present the hypothesis that hybrid necrosis can result from autoimmunity, perhaps as a pleiotropic effect of evolution of genes that are involved in pathogen response.

Author affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Spemanstrasse 37–39, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.

Correspondence to: Kirsten Bomblies1 Email: kirsten.bomblies@tuebingen.mpg.de

Correspondence to: Detlef Weigel1 Email: weigel@weigelworld.org

Published online 3 April 2007

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