Jordan Montgomery

jmontgommail.fresnostate.edu



Hybrid incompatibility occurs when there is a measurable reduction of fitness in hybrid progeny, leading to speciation events. These speciation events occur when two organisms are able to reproduce but their hybrid offspring exhibit reduced fitness, which is a result of genetic incompatibility of the parental species. C. briggsae is a suitable model system for these speciation studies because of its unique and distinct phylogeographic populations. C. briggsae is a close relative to the more well-known study species C. elegans, but is better suited for speciation studies because of its ability to produce fertile hybrid offspring among their diverse phylogeographic populations. Research shows 20% of the temperate HK104 and tropical AF16 hybrid offspring exhibit a developmental delay phenotype in the F2 generation. This phenotype is associated with homozygosity of AF16 alleles near the middle of chromosome III. Using near-isogenic lines allows the possibility to identify the locus on chromosome III responsible for this delayed phenotype. These results will assist in better understanding the evolutionary forces and genetic mechanisms driving speciation events.