Pinpointing the Gene Duplication Event During Primate Divergence.

Studies on the function of in model systems and its evolution during vertebrate divergence shed light on the basic molecular mechanisms of hybrid sterility and its evolutionary consequences. However, information regarding -homolog, , whose origin is placed in the primate evolutionary tree, as well as information about the fast-evolving DNA-binding zinc finger array of strepsirrhine PRDM9 are scarce. Thus, we aimed to narrow down the date of the duplication event leading to the emergence of during primate evolution by comparing the phylogenetic tree reconstructions of representative primate samples of PRDM orthologs and paralogs.

The pioneering role of PRDM9 indel mutations in tarsier evolution.

PRDM9 is currently the sole speciation gene found in vertebrates causing hybrid sterility probably due to incompatible alleles. Its role in defining the double strand break loci during the meiotic prophase I is crucial for proper chromosome segregation. Therefore, the rapid turnover of the loci determining zinc finger array seems to be causative for incompatibilities.