Gene Expression in Hybrids A large proportion of genes differ in their expression patterns between closely related species, and this divergence is believed to be an important driver of phenotypic evolution. However, little is known about the genetic basis of this divergence. Tirosh et al. (p. 659 ) use allele-specific expression profiling of two yeast species and their hybrid to identify which genes diverged in expression owing to changes in their genomic loci (cis) and which genes diverged owing to changes in their regulators (trans). The data can be used to explain the distinct gene expression pattern observed in the hybrid.