A selfish supergene causes meiotic drive through both sexes in Drosophila
A selfish supergene causes meiotic drive through both sexes in Drosophila
Tags: Fruit fly, Selfish genetic elements, X chromosomeG.L. Keais,C.M. Saad-Roy,E. Gonzalez-Sqalli, et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122. 2025.
Meiosis is the process by which cells divide to form eggs and sperm. Typically, chromosomes have an equal chance of being passed on to these cells, but “selfish” genetic elements can manipulate meiosis to favor their own transmission. So far, selfish elements have been shown to exploit meiosis in one sex or the other but not both. Here, we show that an X chromosome in the fly, Drosophila testacea can manipulate both male and female meiosis. This chromosome has expanded to twice the size of its wild-type counterpart and has accumulated structural rearrangements. Because selfish behavior influences how chromosomes spread in populations, our work sheds light on how large, structurally distinct chromosomes evolve, which has important implications for genome evolution.
