A meiotic driver alters sperm form and function in house mice: a possible example of spite
The ability to subvert independent assortment of chromosomes is found in many meiotic drivers, such as the t haplotype in house mice Mus musculus , in which the t -bearing chromosomal homolog is preferentially transmitted to offspring. This is explained by a poison-antidote system, in which developi...
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Veröffentlicht in: | Chromosome research 2022-09, Vol.30 (2-3), p.151-164 |
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Sprache: | eng |
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Zusammenfassung: | The ability to subvert independent assortment of chromosomes is found in many meiotic drivers, such as the
t
haplotype in house mice
Mus musculus
, in which the
t
-bearing chromosomal homolog is preferentially transmitted to offspring. This is explained by a poison-antidote system, in which developing + and
t
sperm in testes of + /
t
males are exposed to ‘poison’ coded by
t
loci, from which
t
sperm are protected, allowing
t
sperm an overwhelming fertilisation advantage in monogamous matings. This system is thought to result in poorly and normally motile sperm subpopulations within + /
t
sperm, leaving
t
sperm unharmed. Conversely, we found that the fastest quartile of sperm from + /
t
males swam more slowly, both forwards and along their travel path, and had reduced straightness and linearity, compared to the fastest quartile of + / + sperm. Moreover, sperm from + /
t
males had shorter tails and narrower heads than + / + sperm, and these morphological differences covaried with motility differences. Finally, + /
t
traits did not show evidence of bimodal distributions. We conclude that the
t
haplotype drive results in lasting damage to the motility of both + and
t
developing sperm, although previous studies indicate that + must be more harmed than
t
sperm. This damage to all sperm may explain the low success of + /
t
males in sperm competition with + / + males, seen in earlier studies. We propose that the harm the
t
causes to itself could be termed ‘spiteful’, which may also be common to other gamete-harming meiotic drive systems. |
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ISSN: | 0967-3849 1573-6849 1573-6849 |
DOI: | 10.1007/s10577-022-09695-4 |