Monday, September 26th
at 12 noon in Aresty Auditorium
Axel Imhof, PhD
Professor of Molecular Biology and Chromatin Modifications, Ludwig
Maximilian, University of Munich, Germany
“Incompatible Chromatin – What Makes the Difference?”
Click Here to Watch the Live Webcast!
A light lunch will be served in the foyer at 11:45 am
Abstract: It is assumed that lethality of hybrid animals is a result of a gradual accumulation of incompatible genetic interactions between separated species as they adapt to their environment. New genetic variants may function well in a given species but interfere with crucial physiological processes in a hybrid background. Drosophila serves as a model to study speciation for almost a century and several genes have been identified that cause these hybrid problems. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms of speciation as the function of these speciation genes has not been clarified.
While purifying heterochromatin associated protein factors, we identified two of these speciation gene products (Hmr and Lhr) that genetically interact to cause lethality of hybrids from crosses of Drosophila melanogaster with animals of the D. simulans in a complex with HP1a, Hmr and Lhr. This complex is critical for centromeric chromatin, which suggests that hybrid incompatibilities are a direct result of incompatible chromosomal organisation.
Host: Dr. Judd Rice
