6533b7d6fe1ef96bd1265cf9

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Formation of novel PRDM9 allele by indel events as possible trigger for tarsier-anthropoid split

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AbstractPRDM9is 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. We here investigated the zinc finger domain-containing exon ofPRDM9in 23 tarsiers. Tarsiers, the most basal extant haplorhine primates, exhibit two frameshifting indels at the 5’-end of the array. The first mutation event interrupts the reading frame and function while the second compensates both. The fixation of this peculiar allele variant in tarsiers led to hypothesize that de‐ and reactivation of the zinc finger domain drove the speciation in early haplorhine primates. Moreover, the high allelic diversity withinTarsiuspoint to multiple effects of genetic drift reflecting their phylogeographic history since the Miocene.