Molecular Plants February cover: It's not that easy to fall in love

"I am a central tiger mule, growing up in Sichuan and Yunnan. Sixty-six years ago, I was discovered by a group of scientists who gave me a name and admitted that I was a new species. "
" for more than a decade, they have been studying me and my parents. Now, they say, my existence is full of chance, because my parents' cross-racial 'love'. Icover of Molecular Plants in February 2021. "It used to be thought that in most cases,
different species could not produce child-like offspring, " he said. But in fact there are still 'fish that leak the net', such as the tiger tweezers in the center. "Introduced by Wang Zhifu, Ph.D. graduate of Sichuan University's School of Life Sciences.
the eve of Valentine's Day, the "family" of tiger hazelnuts appeared on the cover of a new issue of Molecular Plants, through which scientists revealed the genetic mechanisms of the formation of a hybrid species.
Liu Jianquan, one of the co-authors of the paper and a professor at Sichuan University's School of Life Sciences, told the China Science Journal that this is the first time a key gene has been located in the formation of hybrid species in the study of thymx hybrid species." hybrid species is an important part of the species composition and contributes to species diversity. "The paper's co-first author, Wang Zhifu, said, but for a long time, hybrid species how to produce, how to establish reproductive isolation with parent species and other issues have not been accurate answers.
When two independent species interbreed and produce offspring, the future of their "love crystallization" is fraught with uncertainty
: hybrid offspring may not reproduce or be recognized as identities; And when hybrid offspring successfully "break through" and become new species, the process is called hybrid species formation, and new species are called hybrid species.
, there are many concepts for defining species, but stable morphological differences and a certain degree of reproductive isolation are necessary conditions for distinguishing between the two species. The researchers noticed some interesting phenomena in the genus tiger hazelnuts.
there are and only three species of tiger hazelnuts: the central tiger hazelnuts, which grow in Sichuan and Yunnan, and the tiger hazelnuts, which are found in northern China. In Ji ren, Yunnan, local residents can easily be divided into the same mountain head of the center tiger tweezers and tiger hazelnuts, because the central tiger hazelnuts flower more than a month in the morning, and the tiger hazelnut leaves on the fluff more and denser.the middle tiger tweezers and tiger hazelnuts that grow in the same hill.
To further study these characteristics, Liu Jianquan et al. allowed three plants to grow in the same environment, maintain consistent external conditions, and assess the degree of reproductive isolation between them. After that, they identified several key facts:
is more resistant to iron in the soil than the tiger tweezers that grow in northern China. But when it came to flowering, the tiger tweezers in the north and the central tiger hazelnuts in the south were closer, and they both spent more than a month in the morning than the tiger tweezers.
these genetic traits that isolate the three species from each other.the morphological characteristics of three species of tiger hazelnuts. (Photo source: Liu Jianquan Group)In order to explore the association between the three species of tiger mule, the team began to study the molecular level.
experiment, Liu Jianquan et al. first sequenced the whole genome of three plants of the genus Tiger Tweezers, and obtained their genome maps. The artificially constructed family of three tiger hazelnuts was sequenced to obtain the mutation rate of the tiger hazelnuts. After that, the team combined whole genome data from 99 individuals from 42 communities to perform a population genetic analysis of the entire genus of tiger tweezers.
team found that there are very obvious traces of hybrid recombination in the genome of the central tiger mule, and these hybrid traces are precisely from the tiger mule and the tiger mule - they are in fact the "dad" and "mother" of the central tiger mule.
Through data simulation and sequence analysis, Liu Jianquan and others found that: about 1.8 million years ago, the tiger mule and the tiger mule "mutual love", this "love" broke through the reproductive isolation between species, the resulting hybrid offspring began to evolve independently, and eventually grow into a new species, that is, the current center tiger mule.
addition, Liu Jianquan et al. also found the genes of the central tiger tweezers, which are clearly differentiated between the tiger tweezers and the tiger tweezers. Among them, LHY, PIE1 and other genes are related to flowering, inherited from tiger hazelnuts, FRO4, ZIP5 and other genes are related to iron ion tolerance, inherited from tiger hazelnuts.
And in the course of evolution, the central tiger tweezers do not need to produce new genetic mutations or reproductive isolation, only from the "heritage" inherited from different parent species, it can be separated from the "parents" of the three reproductive isolation. map of the species of the tiger tweezers. In order to further validate the newly discovered genetic mechanism, the team conducted a series of simulations and tested an animal of the same thmomex hybrid species, a Darwinian.
"The size and size of these Darwinian birds are significantly different from their 'dad' and 'mom'." Because of these different features, they quickly establish reproductive isolation from their parents, making them new hybrid species. Wang told China Science Daily.
by the method of screening into genes when studying tiger hazelnuts, the team compared hybrid species with the genomes of "dad" and "mom" and successfully screened a series of genes related to the above-mentioned esoteric differences. of the formation of a hybrid species of Darwinian. (Photo: Liu Jianquan' team) "This
that our genetic model is highly universal. Wang said the molecular genetic mechanisms found in the study also apply to other cases of hybrid species formation.
the homogeneity garden experiment, in vitro physiological experiment, genome analysis results, etc. together, the study obtained a "detailed method, comprehensive means" review opinion. Anonymous experts believe that this series of processes and methods is expected to become the future study of estrogen hybrid species "gold standard."
" study not only provided an excellent example for the study of the formation of plant thymogene hybrid species, but also found that a few genetic changes were sufficient to lead to the formation of new species. Kong
, a researcher at the Institute of Plant Research, told China Science Daily.
" On the one hand, the occurrence of mesh evolution in nature is very easy, taxonomy and biodiversity research need to take full account of the effects of mesh evolution on the nature and biological environment adaptability; Kong Hongzhi commented.
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