One of the priorities of biological research is the study of biological diversity.
"We are not trying to describe the diversity itself,
but rather figure out how it is created."
If we follow a common definition of a species,
based on reproductive isolation from other species,
then we should be looking for the types of barriers that cause this isolation,
and that is exactly what we interested in.
Basically, we have two options:
we can either interbreed two species in laboratory
and then study the nature of the reproductive barrier between them,
or observe the formation of a new species “online”.
Excellent arenas for this kind of research are hybrid zones,
which can be considered as natural laboratories for studying the origin of species.
"To study speciation and hybrid zones, we use the house mouse"
as a model since it is easy to breed and has a known genome,
to mention a few of its wide variety of advantages.
Moreover, two mouse subspecies meet in Europe
and hybridize, creating a narrow hybrid zone
that stretches from Scandinavia to the Black Sea coast,
crossing the westernmost part of the Czech Republic.
On a global scale, we have a unique material at our disposal
- approximately 9,000 samples of house mice
from all over the world, primarily from Europe.
Many of them come with extensive genetic information
that allows us to study the reproductive isolation mechanisms in detail.
We have discovered that a major
– and so far, more or less neglected –
role in the process is played by genetic conflicts within the same genome,
especially between the X and Y chromosomes.
Reproductive barriers can take many forms
– for example, males of one subspecies are much more aggressive
and fearless in exploring new environments.
In contrast, females of the other subspecies prefer their own males
to avoid potentially disadvantageous interspecific mating.
We are then interested how they choose their mates,
how they recognise them, and which proteins are likely to play the role
as species specific recognition signals.
Of course, modern science is based on collaboration between several teams,
typically when it comes to analysing entire genomes.
We collaborate with distinguished research institutions
in our country as well as around the world.
We present our findings at international conferences,
publish them in prestigious scientific journals, give lectures at universities
and share them with the general public through various popularization activities.