Cytogenetics of the Herbert River ringtail possum, Pseudocheirus herbertensis (Diprotodonta: Pseudocheiridae): evidence for two species

Genome ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 1119-1123
Author(s):  
J. D. Murray ◽  
G. M. McKay ◽  
J. W. Winter ◽  
S. Ingleby

The two Herbert River ringtail possum subspecies, Pseudocheirus herbertensis ssp. herbertensis and P. h. ssp. cinereus, have diploid chromosome numbers of 12 and 16, respectively. The sex chromosomes of both subspecies are exceptionally large, with the X and Y chromosomes being approximately 16 and 12% of the haploid autosomal complement, respectively. A sex chromosome bivalent cannot be identified during male meiosis and a sex vesicle is not present during pachytene. The two karyotypes are most likely related by two centric fusion events affecting the autosomal complement. We conclude that the X and Y chromosomes have been translocated onto homologous autosomes to give t(XA) t(YA) ♀ t(XA) t(XA) ♂. Our data also strongly support the separation of P. h. cinereus as a distinct species.Key words: karyotypes, sex chromosomes, speciation.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Hylton ◽  
Katie Hansen ◽  
Andrew Bourgeois ◽  
John E. Tomkiel

ABSTRACTTo maintain proper ploidy, haploid sex cells must undergo two subsequent meiotic divisions. During meiosis I, homologs pair and remain conjoined until segregation at anaphase. Drosophila melanogaster spermatocytes are unique in that the canonical events of meiosis I including synaptonemal complex (SC) formation, double-strand DNA breaks, and chiasmata are absent. Sex chromosomes pair at intergenic spacer sequences within the heterochromatic rDNA while euchromatin is required to pair and segregate autosomal homologies, suggesting that pairing may be limited to specific sequences. However, previous work generated from genetic segregation assays or observations of late prophase I/prometaphase I chromosome associations fail to differentiate pairing from conjunction. Here, we separately examined the capability of X euchromatin to pair and conjoin using an rDNA-deficient X and a series of Dp(1;Y) chromosomes. Genetic assays showed that duplicated X euchromatin can substitute for endogenous rDNA pairing sites. Segregation was not proportional to homology length, and pairing could be mapped to nonoverlapping sequences within a single Dp(1;Y). Using fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) to early prophase I spermatocytes, we showed that pairing occurred with high fidelity at all homologies tested. Pairing was unaffected by the presence of X rDNA, nor could it be explained by rDNA magnification. By comparing genetic and cytological data, we determined that centromere proximal pairings were best at segregation. Segregation was dependent on the conjunction protein Stromalin in Meiosis while the autosomal-specific Teflon was dispensable. Overall, our results suggest that pairing may occur at all homologies, but there may be sequence or positional requirements for conjunction.ARTICLE SUMMARYDrosophila males have evolved a unique system of chromosome segregation in meiosis that lacks recombination. Chromosomes pair at selected sequences suggesting that early steps of meiosis may also differ in this organism. Using Y chromosomes carrying portions of X material, we show that pairing between sex chromosomes can be mediated by sequences other than the previously identified rDNA pairing sites. We propose that pairing may simply be homology-based and may not differ from canonical meiosis observed in females. The main difference in males may be that conjunctive mechanisms that join homologs in the absence of crossovers.


Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 2311
Author(s):  
Roberto de la Fuente ◽  
Florencia Pratto ◽  
Abrahan Hernández-Hernández ◽  
Marcia Manterola ◽  
Pablo López-Jiménez ◽  
...  

Meiosis involves a series of specific chromosome events, namely homologous synapsis, recombination, and segregation. Disruption of either recombination or synapsis in mammals results in the interruption of meiosis progression during the first meiotic prophase. This is usually accompanied by a defective transcriptional inactivation of the X and Y chromosomes, which triggers a meiosis breakdown in many mutant models. However, epigenetic changes and transcriptional regulation are also expected to affect autosomes. In this work, we studied the dynamics of epigenetic markers related to chromatin silencing, transcriptional regulation, and meiotic sex chromosome inactivation throughout meiosis in knockout mice for genes encoding for recombination proteins SPO11, DMC1, HOP2 and MLH1, and the synaptonemal complex proteins SYCP1 and SYCP3. These models are defective in recombination and/or synapsis and promote apoptosis at different stages of progression. Our results indicate that impairment of recombination and synapsis alter the dynamics and localization pattern of epigenetic marks, as well as the transcriptional regulation of both autosomes and sex chromosomes throughout prophase-I progression. We also observed that the morphological progression of spermatocytes throughout meiosis and the dynamics of epigenetic marks are processes that can be desynchronized upon synapsis or recombination alteration. Moreover, we detected an overlap of early and late epigenetic signatures in most mutants, indicating that the normal epigenetic transitions are disrupted. This can alter the transcriptional shift that occurs in spermatocytes in mid prophase-I and suggest that the epigenetic regulation of sex chromosomes, but also of autosomes, is an important factor in the impairment of meiosis progression in mammals.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lingzhan Xue ◽  
Yu Gao ◽  
Meiying Wu ◽  
Tian Tian ◽  
Haiping Fan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The origin of sex chromosomes requires the establishment of recombination suppression between the proto-sex chromosomes. In many fish species, the sex chromosome pair is homomorphic with a recent origin, providing species for studying how and why recombination suppression evolved in the initial stages of sex chromosome differentiation, but this requires accurate sequence assembly of the X and Y (or Z and W) chromosomes, which may be difficult if they are recently diverged. Results Here we produce a haplotype-resolved genome assembly of zig-zag eel (Mastacembelus armatus), an aquaculture fish, at the chromosomal scale. The diploid assembly is nearly gap-free, and in most chromosomes, we resolve the centromeric and subtelomeric heterochromatic sequences. In particular, the Y chromosome, including its highly repetitive short arm, has zero gaps. Using resequencing data, we identify a ~7 Mb fully sex-linked region (SLR), spanning the sex chromosome centromere and almost entirely embedded in the pericentromeric heterochromatin. The SLRs on the X and Y chromosomes are almost identical in sequence and gene content, but both are repetitive and heterochromatic, consistent with zero or low recombination. We further identify an HMG-domain containing gene HMGN6 in the SLR as a candidate sex-determining gene that is expressed at the onset of testis development. Conclusions Our study supports the idea that preexisting regions of low recombination, such as pericentromeric regions, can give rise to SLR in the absence of structural variations between the proto-sex chromosomes.


2001 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARIKO KONDO ◽  
ERIKO NAGAO ◽  
HIROSHI MITANI ◽  
AKIHIRO SHIMA

In the medaka, Oryzias latipes, sex is determined chromosomally. The sex chromosomes differ from those of mammals in that the X and Y chromosomes are highly homologous. Using backcross panels for linkage analysis, we mapped 21 sequence tagged site (STS) markers on the sex chromosomes (linkage group 1). The genetic map of the sex chromosome was established using male and female meioses. The genetic length of the sex chromosome was shorter in male than in female meioses. The region where male recombination is suppressed is the region close to the sex-determining gene y, while female recombination was suppressed in both the telomeric regions. The restriction in recombination does not occur uniformly on the sex chromosome, as the genetic map distances of the markers are not proportional in male and female recombination. Thus, this observation seems to support the hypothesis that the heterogeneous sex chromosomes were derived from suppression of recombination between autosomal chromosomes. In two of the markers, Yc-2 and Casp6, which were expressed sequence-tagged (EST) sites, polymorphisms of both X and Y chromosomes were detected. The alleles of the X and Y chromosomes were also detected in O. curvinotus, a species related to the medaka. These markers could be used for genotyping the sex chromosomes in the medaka and other species, and could be used in other studies on sex chromosomes.


Genome ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 1105-1113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alicia Felip ◽  
Atushi Fujiwara ◽  
William P Young ◽  
Paul A Wheeler ◽  
Marc Noakes ◽  
...  

Most fish species show little morphological differentiation in the sex chromosomes. We have coupled molecular and cytogenetic analyses to characterize the male-determining region of the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) Y chromosome. Four genetically diverse male clonal lines of this species were used for genetic and physical mapping of regions in the vicinity of the sex locus. Five markers were genetically mapped to the Y chromosome in these male lines, indicating that the sex locus was located on the same linkage group in each of the lines. We also confirmed the presence of a Y chromosome morphological polymorphism among these lines, with the Y chromosomes from two of the lines having the more common heteromorphic Y chromosome and two of the lines having Y chromosomes morphologically similar to the X chromosome. The fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) pattern of two probes linked to sex suggested that the sex locus is physically located on the long arm of the Y chromosome. Fishes appear to be an excellent group of organisms for studying sex chromosome evolution and differentiation in vertebrates because they show considerable variability in the mechanisms and (or) patterns involved in sex determination.Key words: sex chromosomes, sex markers, cytogenetics, rainbow trout, fish.


2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (38) ◽  
pp. 19031-19036 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iulia Darolti ◽  
Alison E. Wright ◽  
Benjamin A. Sandkam ◽  
Jake Morris ◽  
Natasha I. Bloch ◽  
...  

Once recombination is halted between the X and Y chromosomes, sex chromosomes begin to differentiate and transition to heteromorphism. While there is a remarkable variation across clades in the degree of sex chromosome divergence, far less is known about the variation in sex chromosome differentiation within clades. Here, we combined whole-genome and transcriptome sequencing data to characterize the structure and conservation of sex chromosome systems across Poeciliidae, the livebearing clade that includes guppies. We found that the Poecilia reticulata XY system is much older than previously thought, being shared not only with its sister species, Poecilia wingei, but also with Poecilia picta, which diverged roughly 20 million years ago. Despite the shared ancestry, we uncovered an extreme heterogeneity across these species in the proportion of the sex chromosome with suppressed recombination, and the degree of Y chromosome decay. The sex chromosomes in P. reticulata and P. wingei are largely homomorphic, with recombination in the former persisting over a substantial fraction. However, the sex chromosomes in P. picta are completely nonrecombining and strikingly heteromorphic. Remarkably, the profound degradation of the ancestral Y chromosome in P. picta is counterbalanced by the evolution of functional chromosome-wide dosage compensation in this species, which has not been previously observed in teleost fish. Our results offer important insight into the initial stages of sex chromosome evolution and dosage compensation.


Genome ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 745-751 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sachihiro Matsunaga ◽  
Fumi Yagisawa ◽  
Maki Yamamoto ◽  
Wakana Uchida ◽  
Shunsuke Nakao ◽  
...  

Conserved domains of two types of LTR retrotransposons, Ty1–copia- and Ty3–gypsy-like retrotransposons, were isolated from the dioecious plant Silene latifolia, whose sex is determined by X and Y chromosomes. Southern hybridization analyses using these retrotransposons as probes resulted in identical patterns from male and female genomes. Fluorescence in situ hybridization indicated that these retrotransposons do not accumulate specifically in the sex chromosomes. These results suggest that recombination between the sex chromosomes of S. latifolia has not been severely reduced. Conserved reverse transcriptase regions of Ty1–copia-like retrotransposons were isolated from 13 different Silene species and classified into two major families. Their categorization suggests that parallel divergence of the Ty1–copia-like retrotransposons occurred during the differentiation of Silene species. Most functional retrotransposons from three dioecious species, S. latifolia, S. dioica, and S. diclinis, fell into two clusters. The evolutionary dynamics of retrotransposons implies that, in the genus Silene, dioecious species evolved recently from gynodioecious species.Key words: retrotransposon, dioecious plant, sex chromosome.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta Bergero ◽  
Jim Gardner ◽  
Beth Bader ◽  
Lengxob Yong ◽  
Deborah Charlesworth

Summary/AbstractRecombination suppression between sex chromosomes is often stated to evolve in response to polymorphisms for mutations that affect fitness of males and females in opposite directions (sexually antagonistic, or SA, mutations), but direct empirical support is lacking. The sex chromosomes of the fish Poecilia reticulata (the guppy) carry SA polymorphisms, making them excellent for testing this hypothesis for the evolution of sex linkage. We resequenced genomes of male and female guppies and, unexpectedly, found that variants on the sex chromosome indicate no extensive region with fully sex-linked genotypes, though many variants show strong evidence for partial sex linkage. We present genetic mapping results that help understand the evolution of the guppy sex chromosome pair. We find very different distributions of crossing over in the two sexes, with recombination events in male meiosis detected only at the tips of the chromosomes. The guppy may exemplify a route for sex chromosome evolution in which low recombination in males, likely evolved in a common ancestor, has facilitated the establishment of sexually antagonistic polymorphisms.


2011 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dagmara Kwolek ◽  
Andrzej J. Joachimiak

Sex-ratio bias in seeds of dioecious <em>Rumex</em> species with sex chromosomes is an interesting and still unsettled issue. To resolve gender among seeds of <em>R. acetosa</em> and <em>R. thyrsiflorus</em> (two species with an XX/XY1Y2 sex chromosome system), this work applied a PCR-based method involving DNA markers located on Y chromosomes. Both species showed female-biased primary sex ratios, with female bias greater in <em>R. acetosa</em> than in <em>R. thyrsiflorus</em>. The observed predominance of female seeds is consistent with the view that the female biased sex ratios in <em>Rumex </em>are conditioned not only postzygotically but also prezygotically.


Author(s):  
R. J McKinlay Gardner ◽  
David J Amor

The sex chromosomes (gonosomes) are different, and sex chromosome translocations need to be considered separately from translocations between autosomes. A sex chromosome can engage in translocation with an autosome, with the other sex chromosome, or even with its homolog. The qualities of the sex chromosomes have unique implications in terms of the genetic functioning of gonosome-autosome translocations. This chapter acknowledges the specific peculiarities that the sex chromosomes imply: the X being subject to transcriptional silencing; and the very small Y gene complement being confined largely to sex-determining loci. It reviews translocations between sex chromosomes and autosomes; between X and Y chromosomes; and even the very rare circumstance of between X chromosomes and between Y chromosomes. The differences in assessing risk, according to chromosome form, in comparison with the autosomal translocation, are reviewed, and the biology behind these differences is discussed.


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