PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Daniel L. Powell
AU  - Mateo Garcia
AU  - Mackenzie Keegan
AU  - Patrick Reilly
AU  - Kang Du
AU  - Alejandra P. Díaz-Loyo
AU  - Shreya Banerjee
AU  - Danielle Blakkan
AU  - David Reich
AU  - Peter Andolfatto
AU  - Gil Rosenthal
AU  - Manfred Schartl
AU  - Molly Schumer
TI  - Natural hybridization reveals incompatible alleles that cause melanoma in swordtail fish
AID  - 10.1101/2019.12.12.874586
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2019.12.12.874586
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/12/13/2019.12.12.874586.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/12/13/2019.12.12.874586.full
AB  - The establishment of reproductive barriers between populations is the key process that fuels the evolution of new species. A genetic framework for this process was proposed over 80 years ago, which posits “incompatible” interactions between genes that result in reduced survival or reproduction in hybrids. Despite this foundational work, progress has been slow in identifying individual genes that underlie hybrid incompatibilities, with only a handful known to date. Here, we use a combination of approaches to precisely map the genes that drive the development of a melanoma incompatibility in swordtail fish hybrids. We find that one of the genes involved in this incompatibility also causes melanoma in hybrids between distantly related species. Moreover, we show that this melanoma reduces survival in the wild, likely due to progressive degradation of the fin. Together, this work represents only the second case where the genes underlying a vertebrate hybrid incompatibility have been identified and provides the first glimpse into the action of these genes in natural hybrid populations.One sentence summary Using a combination of mapping approaches, we identify interacting genes that lead to melanoma in hybrids and characterize their effects in natural hybrid populations.