Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Evolutionary genetics

Origins of reproductive isolation

Nature volume 457, pages 549–550 (2009)Cite this article

A rare example of gene incompatibility between two species of budding yeast has been found. This discovery of elusive 'speciation' genes adds to other reproductive-isolation mechanisms operating in yeasts.

Reproductive isolation, leading to divergence between populations and eventually speciation, underlies the world's biodiversity. The evolutionary processes responsible for reproductive isolation have been of great theoretical and experimental interest, with new ones continually being revealed1,2,3. For instance, in a group of related yeast Saccharomyces species, the process mediating reproductive isolation seems to be DNA mismatch repair acting on divergent sequences from each of the two parent species, rather than the two mechanisms that have generally been thought to mediate reproductive isolation — chromosomal rearrangements and gene incompatibilities4. In fact, apart from one possible exception, chromosomal rearrangements are not a prominent mechanism of incompatibility and, although there is evidence for gene incompatibilities4, 'speciation' genes have not been found. Writing in Cell, Lee et al.5 now report incompatibility between a nuclear gene and mitochondria in two related yeast species, S. cerevisiae and S. bayanus, potentially providing the first example of speciation genes.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Hybrid sterility due to incompatibility between nuclear and mitochondrial genomes.

References

  1. Coyne, J. A. Nature 355, 511–515 (1992).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Coyne, J. A. & Orr, H. A. Speciation (Sinauer, 2004).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Dobzhansky, T. Genetics and the Origin of Species (Columbia Univ. Press, 1937).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Greig, D. Heredity 102, 39–44 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Lee, H.-Y. et al. Cell 135, 1065–1073 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Naumov, G. I. Stud. Mycol. 30, 469–475 (1987).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Heck, J. A. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 103, 3256–3261 (2006).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Seidel, H. S., Rockman, M. V. & Kruglyak, L. Science 319, 589–594 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Dettman, J. R., Sirjusingh, C., Kohn, L. M. & Anderson, J. B. Nature 447, 585–588 (2007).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Hittinger, C. T., Rokas, A. & Carroll, S. B. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 101, 14144–14149 (2004).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Dunn, B. & Sherlock, G. Genome Res. 18, 1610–1623 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Edward J. Louis is at the Institute of Genetics, Queen's Medical Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK. ed.louis@nottingham.ac.uk ,

    Edward J. Louis

Authors
  1. Edward J. Louis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Louis, E. Origins of reproductive isolation. Nature 457, 549–550 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/457549a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/457549a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing