Natural and experimental hybridization using the house mouse as an example

The data on hybridization of house mice in nature and experiments accumulated over the last decades are summarized and analyzed. When analyzing hybridization of house mice in natural conditions, the emphasis is placed on discussing the accumulated information on the European hybrid zone between and domesticus and its use in studying postzygotic reproductive barriers between fertile parental forms. In experimental conditions, hybridization of house mice is considered in the review more broadly, but mainly with the involvement of the same inbred lines of s. str. extracted from nature or bred from them. The problems of reduced viability, genomic incompatibility in hybrids, interspecific and intraspecific hybrid sterility (factors causing it, role in speciation) are analyzed. The analysis of the results on the molecular-cytogenetic mechanisms of hybrid sterility caused by various meiotic anomalies associated with impaired fertility, as well as on the gene control of the phenomenon observed during hybridization of house mice, was carried out.