Auto Immune Response Creates Barrier To Fertility; Could Be A Step In Speciation

Plant biologists have discovered that an autoimmune response, triggered by a small number of genes, can be a barrier to producing a viable offspring. This could be a newly identified step toward speciation. This finding presents a new theory in the development of new species: two plants of the same species fail to reproduce not because of infestation or infection from an outside organism, nor from problems with reproductive organs. The biologist suggested that the necrotic plant is possibly analogous to a fertilized egg that fails to implant in the uterus. Infertility in couples might be explained by analogous auto-immune genetic profile. "How many couples can't produce progeny, but when they separate and find another mate, they do?"