Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 323, Issue 5912, Pages 373-375Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1163601
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Funding
- Czech Science Foundation
- Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
- Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic
- NIH
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Speciation genes restrict gene flow between the incipient species and related taxa. Three decades ago, we mapped a mammalian speciation gene, hybrid sterility 1 (Hst1), in the intersubspecific hybrids of house mouse. Here, we identify this gene as Prdm9, encoding a histone H3 lysine 4 trimethyltransferase. We rescued infertility in male hybrids with bacterial artificial chromosomes carrying Prdm9 from a strain with the fertility Hst1(f) allele. Sterile hybrids display down-regulated microrchidia 2B (Morc2b) and fail to compartmentalize gamma H2AX into the pachynema sex (XY) body. These defects, seen also in Prdm9-null mutants, are rescued by the Prdm9 transgene. Identification of a vertebrate hybrid sterility gene reveals a role for epigenetics in speciation and opens a window to a hybrid sterility gene network.
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