A Large Gene Family in Fission Yeast Encodes Spore Killers That Subvert Mendel's Law

Overview

Journal Elife

Specialty Biology

Date 2017 Jun 21

PMID 28631610

Citations 55

Authors

Wen Hu

Zhao-Di Jiang

Fang Suo

Jin-Xin Zheng

Wan-Zhong He

Li-Lin Du

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Spore killers in fungi are selfish genetic elements that distort Mendelian segregation in their favor. It remains unclear how many species harbor them and how diverse their mechanisms are. Here, we discover two spore killers from a natural isolate of the fission yeast . Both killers belong to the previously uncharacterized gene family with 25 members in the reference genome. These two killers act in strain-background-independent and genome-location-independent manners to perturb the maturation of spores not inheriting them. Spores carrying one killer are protected from its killing effect but not that of the other killer. The killing and protecting activities can be uncoupled by mutation. The numbers and sequences of genes vary considerably between isolates, indicating rapid divergence. We propose that genes contribute to the extensive intraspecific reproductive isolation in , and represent ideal models for understanding how segregation-distorting elements act and evolve.

Citing Articles

Functional constraints of wtf killer meiotic drivers.

Nidamangala Srinivasa A, Campbell S, Venkatesan S, Nuckolls N, Lange J, Halfmann R PLoS Genet. 2025; 21(2):e1011534.

PMID: 39965018 PMC: 11892871. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1011534.

Identification of novel genes responsible for a pollen killer present in local natural populations of Arabidopsis thaliana.

Ricou A, Simon M, Duflos R, Azzopardi M, Roux F, Budar F PLoS Genet. 2025; 21(1):e1011451.

PMID: 39804925 PMC: 11761171. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1011451.

Functional constraints of killer meiotic drivers.

Nidamangala Srinivasa A, Campbell S, Venkatesan S, Nuckolls N, Lange J, Halfmann R bioRxiv. 2024; .

PMID: 39677646 PMC: 11642804. DOI: 10.1101/2024.08.27.609905.

Killer meiotic drive executed by two alternative conformations of a single protein.

Zanders S, Smith G Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024; 121(50):e2420620121.

PMID: 39621930 PMC: 11648849. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2420620121.

Structural duality enables a single protein to act as a toxin-antidote pair for meiotic drive.

Hua Y, Zhang J, Yang M, Ren J, Suo F, Liang L Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024; 121(45):e2408618121.

PMID: 39485800 PMC: 11551426. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2408618121.

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