The questions that still remain are:
What really happens?
What factors block the embryonic development in such interspecies mating?
The answer comes from a recent publication from the PLoS Genetics an online free journal.
Mitochondrial genome cannot make many of the proteins that the organelle need and most of such proteins are synthesized in the cytoplasm that are encoded in the nuclear genome. Mitochondria, the power house of the cell cannot function properly without proteins that are encoded by nuclear genome. Thus, the interactions of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA are critical to cellular life. The interactions of nuclear genome and mitochondrial genome are essential not only for the mitochondrial transcription, translation, and cellular respiration (oxidative phosphorylation) but also for the phenotypic variation and fitness of the organism as a whole .
In the new study, Colin Meiklejohn from Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA and colleagues artificially introduced mutations in certain nuclear genes and mitochondrial genes of two different species of the fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans and have ‘genetically dissected’ and found out that a mitochondrial-nuclear incompatibility is indeed one of the main factors that hinders the embryonic development of hybrids.
- Dr. P. Kumarasamy
Further reading:
http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.1003238 http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/34398/title/Mitochondria-Versus-Nucleus/
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