Genetic Mismatch Keeps Yeast Species Distinct, Institute of Molecular Biology at Academia Sinica Study

ScienceDaily (July 22, 2010) — How species form and what keeps them distinct from each other, even though they can interbreed, is a key question in evolution. Researchers from Taiwan, led by Dr. Jun-Yi Leu, an Assistant Research Fellow from the Institute of Molecular Biology at Academia Sinica, have recently identified genes in three closely-related yeast species that cause sterility, increasing our understanding of how species can remain distinct. The findings are published in the online, open access journal PLoS Biology.