Analysis of dosage effect of speciation gene Prdm9 on fertility of mouse hybrids

(eng) The phenomenon of hybrid sterility represents one of the evolutionary mechanisms that enables speciation. Only a few speciation genes have been uncovered. The only one found in mammals is Prdm9 (PR-domain 9). Data in the literature on the involvement of Prdm9 in decreased fertility of various semifertile hybrid males of house mouse subspecies were scarce before the results of this thesis were completed, despite that such males are much more frequent in nature than the fully sterile ones. Utilizing a panel of genetic tools and a battery of phenotyping tests, this thesis shows a central role of Prdm9 in fecundity of hybrids, including many fertility disorders and age dependency. Both increasing and reducing the Prdm9 gene dosage significantly elevated fertility parameters. Surprisingly, even the allele that in one copy causes full hybrid sterility increased F1 hybrid fertility when present in multiple copies. The PRDM9 protein also plays a role in identifying the sites of meiotic recombination. This study also points out the principles of allelic competition in determination of the sites of preferred recombination (hotspots), which suggests a possible link between both previously described Prdm9 roles. This thesis summarizes a set of three logically interconnected publications with the ambition..