Species-wide survey reveals the various flavors of intraspecific reproductive isolation in yeast

Abstract

Exploring the origin and extent of reproductive isolation within the same species is valuable to capture early events to the onset of speciation. In multiple genetic models, reproductive isolation was recently observed at the intraspecific scale, indicating that the raw potential for speciation segregates readily within populations, which could be a rule rather than an exception in a broad context. We briefly recapitulate the molecular evidence of intrinsic post-zygotic isolation in major model organisms including Arabidopsis thaliana, Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster and their close relatives. We then focus on recent advances in yeast and review the genetic basis of post-zygotic isolation within and between multiple members of the Saccharomyces genus, especially in Saccharomyces cerevisiae We discuss the role of various mechanisms involved in the onset of reproductive isolation including DNA sequence divergence, chromosomal rearrangement, cytonuclear as well as nuclear-nuclear genetic incompatibilities and provide a comparative view along a continuum of genetic differentiation, which encompasses intraspecific populations, recent delineating nascent species as well as closely related sister species in the same subphylum.

Keywords: intraspecific; reproductive isolation; speciation.