Science at UM [S03-ep29]: Butterfly hybridization

[Podcast] - Published on June 13, 2024 in Science-Society

This week in Science at UM Mathieu Joron, researcher at the Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, talks to us about hybridization in butterflies. In the second part of the program, we return to Cemipai with Yara Tasrini, who shows us a microscope she uses to observe zebrafish. Finally, Nathan Roure will present the next Science Bar. A program co-produced with Divergence FM and broadcast every Wednesday at 6 p.m. on 93.9.

Have you ever heard of pizzlies, or, less poetically but much funnier, grolars? In both cases, we are talking about the offspring of a grizzly bear and a polar bear. If the father is a grizzly bear and the mother comes from the ice floes, the baby bear will be called a grolar; otherwise, it will be called a pizzly. You've probably noticed my delicate circumlocution to refer to what is more seriously called hybridization. Other examples exist, the mule being a well-known one.

But there are others:

• the liger or tigon, a hybrid between a tiger and a lion;
• the sanglochon, a cross between a wild boar and a pig;
• the camel, a cross between a llama and a dromedary;
• more difficult the zorse, a cross between a horse and a zebra.

In 2019, according to National Geographic, scientists also discovered:

• the narluga, a hybrid of the beluga and the narwhal;
• In 2020, it is a cross between a rose-breasted cardinal and a scarlet piranga that is making headlines, as these two bird species seem so different.

As for us sapiens, are we not the result of hybridization with Neanderthals or Denisovans?

Although the phenomenon is not as rare as it seems, it nonetheless raises questions. Are these simply anecdotal and sterile little romances, or could they give rise to new species?

This is one of the questions that Mathieu Joron will answer, having studied a very particular species of butterfly. He is a researcher at CEFE, the Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, and co-author of a paper published in Nature entitled Hybrid speciation driven by multilocus introgression of ecological traits.

In the second part of the program, we return to Cemipai with Yara Tasrini and Sébastien Lyonnais, who introduce us to an automatic microscope. It is the only one in France to be installed in a P3 laboratory and, for the record, it arrived at Cemipai at the very beginning of the pandemic to work on SARS-CoV. As you will hear, the model used is the zebrafish, or rather zebrafish embryos before the formation of their nervous system, to avoid any pain. 

Finally, Nathan Roure, press relations officer at the University of Montpellier, will present the last Science Bar of the season, dedicated to the migration of animal and plant populations since the dawn of time. See you on Thursday, June 13.

At UM Science, you have the program, so let's get started!

Co-production: Divergence FM / University of Montpellier
Host: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interview: Aline Périault / Lucie Lecherbonnier
Reporting and editing: Lucie Lecherbonnier / Aline Périault
Production: Tom Chevalier / Alice Rollet

Listen to the program “A l’UM la science” on Divergence FM 93.9

Keywords: Science at UM, Research, Science, Company