MMARÍA ANGÉLICA BRAVO NÚÑEZ AND NICOLE NUCKOLLS.

Scientists have discovered that wtf4, a gene from the yeast Schizosaccharomyces kambucha, boosts its odds of being passed down by encoding both a poison and an antidote, according to a study published today (June 20) in eLife.

In a 2014 study, Sarah Zanders, a geneticist at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, and colleagues discovered that in two yeast species, S. pombe and S. kambucha, meiotic drivers—genes that boost their chances of survival by interfering with meiosis—could cause infertility.

Now, the team has uncovered one of the genes that are responsible for this effect—wtf4. This gene disrupts meiosis by generating two transcripts: one short RNA that encodes a toxic protein and one long RNA that encodes an antitoxin protein. The poison is...