The acylphosphatase (Acyp) alleles associate with male hybrid sterility in Drosophila

Hybrid defects are believed to result from genetic incompatibilities between genes that have evolved in separate parental lineages. These genetic dysfunctions on the hybrid genomic background, also known as Dobzhansky–Muller incompatibilities, can be an incipient signature of speciation, and as such — a subject of active research. Here we present evidence that Acyp locus (CG16870) that encodes acylphosphatase, a small enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of acylphosphates and participates in ion transport across biological membranes, is involved in genetic incompatibilities leading to male sterility in hybrids between Drosophila simulans and D. mauritiana. There is a strong association between Acyp alleles (genotype) and the sterility/fertility pattern (phenotype), as well as between the phenotype, the genotype and its transcriptional activity. Allele-specific expression in hybrids heterozygous for Acyp suggests a cis-type regulation of this gene, where an allele from one of the parental species (D. simulans) is consistently overexpressed.