Life Sciences BG | A single mutation results in diploid gamete formation and parthenogenesis in a Drosophila yemanuclein-alpha meiosis I defective mutant

English

A single mutation results in diploid gamete formation and parthenogenesis in a Drosophila yemanuclein-alpha meiosis I defective mutant

Background:
Sexual reproduction relies on two key events: formation of cells with a haploid genome (the gametes) and restoration of diploidy after fertilization. Therefore the underlying mechanisms must have been evolutionary linked and there is a need for evidence that could support such a model.
Results:
We describe the identification and the characterization of yem1, the first yem-alpha mutant allele (V478E), which to some extent affects diploidy reduction and its restoration. Yem-alpha is a member of the Ubinuclein/ HPC2 family of proteins that have recently been implicated in playing roles in chromatin remodeling in concert with HIRA histone chaperone. The yem1 mutant females exhibited disrupted chromosome behavior in the first meiotic division and produced very low numbers of viable progeny. Unexpectedly these progeny did not display paternal chromosome markers, suggesting that they developed from diploid gametes that underwent gynogenesis, a form of parthenogenesis that requires fertilization.
Conclusions:
We focus here on the analysis of the meiotic defects exhibited by yem1 oocytes that could account for the formation of diploid gametes. Our results suggest that yem1 affects chromosome segregation presumably by affecting kinetochores function in the first meiotic division.This work paves the way to further investigations on the evolution of the mechanisms that support sexual reproduction.

Read the original article at BMC Genetics.

Published: Nov 2010, Updated: 25th Nov

Most recent items in "Генетика":

25th Nov Генетика: Genetic defects of GDF6 in the zebrafish out of sight mutant and in human eye developmental anomalies

Background:
The size of the vertebrate eye and the retina is likely to be controlled at several stages of embryogenesis by mechanisms that affect cell cycle length as well as cell survival. A mutation in the zebrafish out of sight (out) locus results in a particularly severe reduction of eye si...

25th Nov Генетика: Comparative genomic analysis of Atlantic Salmon, Salmo salar, from Europe and North America

Background:
Several lines of evidence including allozyme analysis, restriction digest patterns and sequencing of mtDNA as well as mini- and micro-satellite allele frequencies indicate that Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) from North America and Europe are genetically distinct. These observations a...

25th Nov Генетика: Principal-component-based multivariate regression for genetic association studies of metabolic syndrome components

Background:
Quantitative traits often underlie risk for complex diseases. For example, weight and body mass index (BMI) underlie the human abdominal obesity-metabolic syndrome. Many attempts have been made to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) over the past decade, including association stu...

25th Nov Генетика: Effectiveness of 10 polymorphic microsatellite markers for parentage and pedigree analysis in plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae)

Background:
The plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae ) is an underground-dwelling mammal, native to the Tibetan plateau of China. A set of 10 polymorphic microsatellite loci has been developed earlier. Its reliability for parentage assignment has been tested in a plateau pika population. Two family...

7th Nov Генетика: Integrative mapping analysis of chicken microchromosome 16 organization

Background:
The chicken karyotype is composed of 39 chromosome pairs, of which 9 still remain totally absent from the current genome sequence assembly, despite international efforts towards complete coverage. Some others are only very partially sequenced, amongst which microchromosome 16 (GGA16...