“Genes of Speciation”: History and Present: A Brief Review

The review is devoted to the history of the formation of scientific interest in the genetic foundations of isolating barriers between species and the current state of the problem of prezygotic isolation mechanisms. The noncontradictory ideas about natural selection acting on traits and inheritance of traits are based on the synthesis of genetics and the Darwinian theory of evolution that took place in the mid-1920s. An experimental approach to studying genetic foundations of evolution using methods of distant and interspecies hybridization, proposed by Chetverikov, was widely introduced into the world practice by his student Theodosius Dobzhansky. As ideas about the role of geographical and ecological isolation in the isolation of populations and possible forms of selection involved in the formation of barriers, i.e., about allopatric and sympatric speciation, changed, ideas about the importance of pre- and postzygotic isolation mechanisms have also changed. From Dobzhansky–Muller incompatibility models (DMI models) and Wright’s “shifting balance theory,” without disputing their significance, interest has spread to polygenic models of genetic control of traits that determine the effectiveness of mating behavior and copulation. To date, the vast majority of experimental work on the genetic basis of isolating mechanisms between related species has been done using Drosophila. The review discusses classical genetic studies on traits causing incompatibility or “failure” in related Drosophila species, and works using modern methods of genetic engineering, genome editing, and genome and transcriptome analysis to identify target genes involved in the formation of isolation between diverging species.