An empirical test of the meiotic drive models of hybrid sterility: Sex- ratio data from hybrids between Drosophila simulans and Drosophila sechellia

Abstract

Recently, there has been much discussion regarding the hypothesis that divergence of meiotic drive systems in isolated populations can generate the patterns of reproductive isolation observed in animal hybridizations. One prediction from this hypothesis is that the sex ratio of hybrids with heterospecific sex chromosomes should greatly deviate from the Mendelian expectation of 50% female. From sex-ratio data in our Drosophila hybridization studies, we find no such deviation: the sex ratio of offspring of males with introgressed heterospecific Y chromosomes with various autosomal backgrounds does not differ from that of the pure species. We also discuss other aspects of the current meiotic drive models.