Genetic Villains: Killer Meiotic Drivers

Unbiased allele transmission into progeny is a fundamental genetic concept canonized as Mendel’s Law of Segregation. Not all alleles, however, abide by the law. Killer meiotic drivers are ultra-selfish DNA sequences that are transmitted into more than half (sometimes all) of the meiotic products gen...

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Published inTrends in genetics Vol. 34; no. 6; pp. 424 - 433
Main Authors Bravo Núñez, María Angélica, Nuckolls, Nicole L., Zanders, Sarah E.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2018
Subjects
Alleles
Chromosome Segregation - genetics
Eukaryota
Genetics - trends
Heterozygote
killer meiotic drivers
meiosis
Meiosis - genetics
meiotic drive
segregation distortion
selfish genes
segregation distortion
killer meiotic drivers
meiosis
meiotic drive
selfish genes
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Summary:Unbiased allele transmission into progeny is a fundamental genetic concept canonized as Mendel’s Law of Segregation. Not all alleles, however, abide by the law. Killer meiotic drivers are ultra-selfish DNA sequences that are transmitted into more than half (sometimes all) of the meiotic products generated by a heterozygote. As their name implies, these loci gain a transmission advantage in heterozygotes by destroying otherwise viable meiotic products that do not inherit the driver. We review and classify killer meiotic drive genes across a wide spectrum of eukaryotes. We discuss how analyses of these ultra-selfish genes can lead to greater insight into the mechanisms of gametogenesis and the causes of infertility. Killer meiotic drivers are ultra-selfish alleles that bias their transmission by destroying meiotic products that do not inherit them. Meiotic drivers have been found in a wide range of eukaryotes but are notoriously hard to detect. Killer meiotic drivers contribute to reproductive isolation in natural populations. There are two broadly defined mechanisms that killer meiotic drivers commonly use: poison–antidote and killer–target. Cloned killer meiotic drive systems are beginning to provide mechanistic insight into how these selfish loci bias their transmission. Killer meiotic drivers may guide the construction of synthetic gene drives that could be used to modify or eliminate pest populations.
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These authors contributed equally to this work
ISSN:0168-9525
DOI:10.1016/j.tig.2018.02.003