Putting the brake on drive: meiotic drive of t haplotypes in natural populations of mice

Abstract

Mouse t haplotypes are a 'selfish' form of chromosome 17 that show non-mendelian transmission from heterozygous +/t males. The considerable transmission bias in favour of t haplotypes should result in very high frequencies of these chromosomes in natural populations, but they seldom occur at the high frequencies expected. Recent research on this and other meiotic drive systems has shown how a variety of mechanisms have evolved to suppress drive, and to re-establish mendelian segregation.