Selfish gene acts as both poison and antidote to eliminate competition

"Researchers from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in collaboration with Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center researchers have identified an unprecedented genetic survival strategy that would be right at home in an Agatha Christie murder mystery novel.

Credit: Image courtesy of María Angélica
Bravo Núñez and Nicole Nuckolls

In their report published June 20, 2017, in eLife, co-first authors and Stowers Predoctoral Researchers Nicole Nuckolls and María Angélica Bravo Núñez, study lead Sarah Zanders, Ph.D., and colleagues detail how the wtf4 gene found in S. kambucha fission yeast acts as both a poison and an antidote to ensure its transmission into the next generation, and to eliminate its competition.

Wtf genes are selfish genes -- parasitic genes whose sole purpose is to survive and spread. Specifically, the wtf4 gene is a meiotic drive selfish gene. It interferes with the process of meiosis -- the form of cell division that creates sex cells, called gametes, like eggs and sperm.

Gametes contain only one copy of each chromosome. The cells that generate gametes contain two copies: one chromosome from each parent. During meiosis, each copy is transmitted to the gametes in equal numbers. For example, males with an X and Y chromosome produce 50 percent X-bearing and 50 percent Y-bearing sperm..."

Learn more:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170620093209.htm