Ontogenes and the Problem of Speciation - Ontogenes and the Problem of Speciation - Open Access Pub

The existing hypotheses on speciation rely on Mendelian genes and mutations in them. However, genome-wide sequencing demonstrates that the Mendelian genes account less than one-tenth of the entire genome DNA. This means that a greater part of the genome has not yet been subject to large-scale evolutionary consideration. This paper deals with the conditional mutations in drosophila, which are mutations of the genes belonging to a special category (ontogenes) controlling the program of individual development. The ontogenes presumably reside in the DNA of intergenic spaces and introns. Conditional mutations display a number of properties absent in the mutations of Mendelian genes. These specific properties allow three key problems in speciation to be solved: (1) the possibility of emergence of new traits as a result of sequential mutagenesis; (2) selection of mutants; and (3) establishment of isolation. We have shown that (1) the mutations in ontogenes are able to form new multigenic regulatory blocks that escape selection during their creation; (2) mutations in ontogenes allow for existence of constantly acting zygotic selection, which is by no means less important for speciation than Darwinian selection; and (3) owing to their conditionally lethal effect, the mutations in ontogenes are able to create biological isolation barrier. This gives the grounds for assuming that the emergence of mutations in ontogenes is a necessary condition for speciation. DOI10.14302/issn.2689-4602.jes-18-2431 The classical period in development of genetics gave birth to the genetic foundations of ontogenesis and phylogenesis, bringing the corresponding areas of knowledge to a higher level. However, genetics have encountered difficult questions. The first question is how it is possible to explain the obligate similarity of individuals within a species with the help of changeable (those that form viable mutant variants) genes 1. The second question is how it is possible to explain the existence of common and unchangeable program of individual development within a species with the help of the concept of changeable gene 2. Finally, the third question is whether it is possible to explain establishment of biological isolation of a new species, one of the fundamental phenomena in speciation, with the help of mutations in Mendelian genes, which, as a rule, do not interfere with fertility 3. The attempts to answer these and other questions have suggested existence of different genes, other than the Mendelian ones 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. These assumptions have not been experimentally