Professor Axel Imhof of Ludwig Maximilians-Universitaet in Munich show that differences in the levels of certain key proteins are crucial in the mediating reproductive isolation is the reason why many hybrid animals are sterile. in Imhof's new study, his team has characterized the functions of the Lmr (Lethal male rescue) and Hmr (Hybrid male rescue) genes for fruitflies belonging to the closely related Drosophila species D. melanogaster and D. simulans. Imhof's group has also shown that the proteins encoded by the genes Hmr and Lhr form a molecular complex and these complexes play an important role in chromosome segregation later in cell division. Due to this we see that the hybrids produce both HMR and LHR proteins but in different amounts, thereby making them sterile.
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The results of this study reveal that it is the relative level of the proteins concerned in reproduction, and there is no difference in their amino acid sequences, that plays a crucial role here.
I like this article because now, with a greater understanding of why hybrid animals are sterile, it can give way to some type of gene therapy that would allow for these hybrids to not be sterile. In future experiments the team plans on analyzeing the complete functions of the proteins.
That's interesting. If something can be done to regulate those proteins, then hybrid breeding would be much easier and we could potentially breed hybrid animals that are more resistant to diseases thus breeding better livestock.
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