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Updated: Jun 6, 2025

Determination of the Mating Efficiency of Haploids in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Determination of the Mating Efficiency of Haploids in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Published on: December 2, 2022

Meiotic Drive and Speciation.

Jeremy B Searle¹, Fernando Pardo-Manuel de Villena²

¹Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA;

Annual Review of Genetics

|November 25, 2024

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Meiotic drive, a violation of Mendelian inheritance, occurs due to intragenomic conflict. This process, driven by centromeres or sex chromosomes, can lead to allele fixation and potentially contribute to the formation of new species.

Keywords:

Dobzhansky–Muller incompatibilities Drosophila centromere drive chromosomal rearrangements cryptic drivers house mouse hybrid male sterility macroevolution reproductive isolation sex ratio distortion

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary genetics
Speciation research
Genomics

Background:

Meiotic drive describes allele transmission bias from heterozygotes, defying Mendel's laws.
It stems from intragenomic conflict, not organism-level selection.
Both centromere-driven and sex chromosome-driven meiotic drive mechanisms are theoretically and empirically supported.

Purpose of the Study:

To review the theoretical and empirical evidence for meiotic drive mechanisms.
To explore the role of meiotic drive in allele fixation and reproductive isolation.
To highlight the significance of meiotic drive in the context of speciation.

Main Methods:

Theoretical modeling of centromere properties and sex chromosome conflicts.
Empirical data analysis supporting centromere drive and sex chromosome drive models.
Review of genomic studies on allele fixation and speciation, particularly in *Drosophila* and *Mus musculus*.

Main Results:

Centromere drive can facilitate fixation of centromere-involved chromosomal rearrangements.
Sex chromosome drive may contribute to Dobzhansky-Muller incompatibilities, aiding speciation.
Genome-wide analyses indicate meiotic drive regularly promotes allele fixation.

Conclusions:

Meiotic drive is a significant evolutionary force promoting allele fixation.
Understanding meiotic drive is crucial for research into the genomics of speciation.
Meiotic drive is one of several processes that can contribute to the origin of new species.