Data from: Natural variation in the zinc-finger-encoding exon of Prdm9 affects hybrid sterility phenotypes in mice

PRDM9-mediated reproductive isolation was first described in the progeny
of Mus musculus musculus (MUS) PWD/Ph and Mus musculus domesticus (DOM)
C57BL/6J inbred strains. These male F1-hybrids fail to complete chromosome
synapsis and arrest meiosis at prophase I, due to incompatibilities
between the Prdm9 gene and hybrid sterility locus Hstx2. We identified
fourteen alleles of Prdm9 in Exon 12, encoding the DNA-binding domain of
the PRDM9 protein in outcrossed wild mouse populations from Europe, Asia,
and the Middle East, eight of which are novel. The same Prdm9 allele was
found in all mice bearing introgressed t-haplotypes, encompassing Prdm9
and inversions preventing recombination with wildtype Chr 17. We asked
whether seven novel Prdm9 alleles in MUS populations and the t-haplotype
allele in one MUS and three DOM populations induce Prdm9-mediated
reproductive isolation. The results show that only combinations of the
dom2 allele of DOM origin and the MUS msc1 allele ensure complete
infertility of intersubspecific hybrids outside the context of inbred
mouse strains. The results further indicate that the erasure of PRDM9 msc1
binding motifs may be shared by MUS mice from populations with different
Prdm9alleles, implicating that erased PRDM9 binding motifs may be
uncoupled from their corresponding PRDM9 zinc finger arrays at the
population level. Our data corroborate the model of Prdm9-mediated hybrid
sterility beyond inbred strains of mice and suggest that sterility alleles
of Prdm9 may be rare.