Y chromosome specific markers and the evolution of dioecy in the genus Silene

Genome ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y Hi Zhang ◽  
Veronica S Stilio ◽  
Farah Rehman ◽  
Amy Avery ◽  
David Mulcahy ◽  
...  

Sex determination in plants has been most thoroughly investigated in Silene latifolia, a dioecious species possessing heteromorphic sex chromosomes. We have identified several new Y chromosome linked RAPD markers and converted these to more reliable sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) markers by cloning the RAPD fragments and developing longer primers. Of the primer pairs for seven SCARs, five amplify a single, unique fragment from the DNA of male S. latifolia. Two sets of primers also amplify additional fragments common to males and females. Homology between the X and Y chromosomes is sufficient to allow the amplification of fragments from females under less stringent PCR conditions. Five of the SCARs also distinguish between the sexes of closely related dioecious taxa of the section Elisanthe, but not between the sexes of distantly related dioecious species. These markers will be useful for continued investigations into the evolution of sex, phylogenetic relationships among taxa, and population dynamics of sex ratios in the genus Silene.Key words: Melandrium, RAPDs, sex chromosomes, SCARs.

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.


Genome ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Grabowska-Joachimiak ◽  
Andrzej Joachimiak

Mitotic metaphase chromosomes of Silene latifolia (white campion) and Silene dioica (red campion) were studied and no substantial differences between the conventional karyotypes of these two species were detected. The classification of chromosomes into three distinct groups proposed for S. latifolia by Ciupercescu and colleagues was considered and discussed. Additionally, a new small satellite on the shorter arm of homobrachial chromosome 5 was found. Giemsa C-banded chromosomes of the two analysed species show many fixed and polymorphic heterochromatic bands, mainly distally and centromerically located. Our C-banding studies provided an opportunity to better characterize the sex chromosomes and some autosome types, and to detect differences between the two Silene karyotypes. It was shown that S. latifolia possesses a larger amount of polymorphic heterochromatin, especially of the centromeric type. The two Silene sex chromosomes are easily distinguishable not only by length or DNA amount differences but also by their Giemsa C-banding patterns. All Y chromosomes invariably show only one distally located band, and no other fixed or polymorphic bands on this chromosome were observed in either species. The X chromosomes possess two terminally located fixed bands, and some S. latifolia X chromosomes also have an extra-centric segment of variable length. The heterochromatin amount and distribution revealed by our Giemsa C-banding studies provide a clue to the problem of sex chromosome and karyotype evolution in these two closely related dioecious Silene species.Key words: dioecious plant, Silene dioica, Silene latifolia, karyotype, sex chromosomes, heterochromatin, C-banding.


Author(s):  
Alison H. Nguyen ◽  
Doris Bachtrog

Sex‐specific differences in lifespan are prevalent across the tree of life and influenced by heteromorphic sex chromosomes. In species with XY sex chromosomes, females often outlive males. Males and females can differ in their overall repeat content due to the repetitive Y chromosome, and repeats on the Y might lower survival of the heterogametic sex (toxic Y effect). Here, we take advantage of the well‐assembled young Y chromosome of Drosophila miranda to study the sex‐specific dynamics of chromatin structure and repeat expression during aging in male and female flies. Male D. miranda have about twice as much repetitive DNA compared to females, and live shorter than females. Heterochromatin is crucial for silencing of repetitive elements, yet old D. miranda flies lose H3K9me3 modifications in their pericentromere, with heterochromatin loss being more severe during aging in males than females. Satellite DNA becomes de‐repressed more rapidly in old vs. young male flies relative to females. In contrast to what is observed in D. melanogaster, we find that transposable elements (TEs) are expressed at higher levels in male D. miranda throughout their life. We show that epigenetic silencing via heterochromatin formation is ineffective on the large TE‐ rich neo‐Y chromosome, resulting in up‐regulation of Y‐linked TEs already in young males. This is consistent with an interaction between the age of the Y chromosome and the genomic effects of aging. Our data support growing evidence that “toxic Y chromosomes” can diminish male fitness and a reduction in heterochromatin can contribute to sex‐specific aging.


Genetics ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 158 (3) ◽  
pp. 1269-1277
Author(s):  
Eduard Kejnovský ◽  
Jan Vrána ◽  
Sachihiro Matsunaga ◽  
Přemysl Souček ◽  
Jiří Široký ◽  
...  

Abstract The dioecious white campion Silene latifolia (syn. Melandrium album) has heteromorphic sex chromosomes, XX in females and XY in males, that are larger than the autosomes and enable their separation by flow sorting. The group of MROS genes, the first male-specifically expressed genes in dioecious plants, was recently identified in S. latifolia. To localize the MROS genes, we used the flow-sorted X chromosomes and autosomes as a template for PCR with internal primers. Our results indicate that the MROS3 gene is located in at least two copies tandemly arranged on the X chromosome with additional copy(ies) on the autosome(s), while MROS1, MROS2, and MROS4 are exclusively autosomal. The specificity of PCR products was checked by digestion with a restriction enzyme or reamplification using nested primers. Homology search of databases has shown the presence of five MROS3 homologues in A. thaliana, four of them arranged in two tandems, each consisting of two copies. We conclude that MROS3 is a low-copy gene family, connected with the proper pollen development, which is present not only in dioecious but also in other dicot plant species.


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.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devon E. Pearse ◽  
Nicola J. Barson ◽  
Torfinn Nome ◽  
Guangtu Gao ◽  
Matthew A. Campbell ◽  
...  

AbstractTraits with different fitness optima in males and females cause sexual conflict when they have a shared genetic basis. Heteromorphic sex chromosomes can resolve this conflict and protect sexually antagonistic polymorphisms but accumulate deleterious mutations. However, many taxa lack differentiated sex chromosomes, and how sexual conflict is resolved in these species is largely unknown. Here we present a chromosome-anchored genome assembly for rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and characterize a 56 Mb double-inversion supergene that mediates sex-specific migration through sex-dependent dominance, a mechanism that reduces sexual conflict. The double-inversion contains key photosensory, circadian rhythm, adiposity, and sexual differentiation genes and displays frequency clines associated with latitude and temperature, revealing environmental dependence. Our results constitute the first example of sex-dependent dominance across a large autosomal supergene, a novel mechanism for sexual conflict resolution capable of protecting polygenic sexually antagonistic variation while avoiding the homozygous lethality and deleterious mutation load of heteromorphic 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.


1970 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 461-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Y. Jan ◽  
J. W. Boyes

The karyotype of Musca domestica L. ocra strain, consists of the sex chromosomes and five autosomal pairs. The heteromorphic sex chromosomes are heterochromatic and mitotically unpaired, whereas the autosomes are euchromatic and mitotically paired. All autosomal pairs and both X and Y chromosomes are cytologically recognizable.The relative labelling rate, R (in terms of the number of grains counted per 100 labelled metaphases per μ of chromosome length) for the sex chromosomes and for each autosomal pair was followed from 1.5 hours to 8 hours after H3TdR injection. The pattern of labelling rate was similar for the different autosomal pairs in the XX cells but this pattern for the autosomal pairs in the XY cells, though also similar for the different pairs, differed appreciably from that found in the XX cells. The pattern of the labelling rate for the X chromosomes was similar in the XX and XY cells. Also the pattern of labelling rate for the X and Y chromosomes was similar during the final part of the replication period. The two X chromosomes in the XX cells and the X and Y chromosomes in the XY cells completed labelling later than the autosomes.


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.


2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (42) ◽  
pp. 13021-13026 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander S. T. Papadopulos ◽  
Michael Chester ◽  
Kate Ridout ◽  
Dmitry A. Filatov

The nonrecombining regions of animal Y chromosomes are known to undergo genetic degeneration, but previous work has failed to reveal large-scale gene degeneration on plant Y chromosomes. Here, we uncover rapid and extensive degeneration of Y-linked genes in a plant species, Silene latifolia, that evolved sex chromosomes de novo in the last 10 million years. Previous transcriptome-based studies of this species missed unexpressed, degenerate Y-linked genes. To identify sex-linked genes, regardless of their expression, we sequenced male and female genomes of S. latifolia and integrated the genomic contigs with a high-density genetic map. This revealed that 45% of Y-linked genes are not expressed, and 23% are interrupted by premature stop codons. This contrasts with X-linked genes, in which only 1.3% of genes contained stop codons and 4.3% of genes were not expressed in males. Loss of functional Y-linked genes is partly compensated for by gene-specific up-regulation of X-linked genes. Our results demonstrate that the rate of genetic degeneration of Y-linked genes in S. latifolia is as fast as in animals, and that the evolutionary trajectories of sex chromosomes are similar in the two kingdoms.


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