Gonadal Morphogenesis and Gene Expression in Reptiles with Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 50-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Merchant-Larios ◽  
V. Díaz-Hernández ◽  
A. Marmolejo-Valencia
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiran Adhikari ◽  
Jae Hak Son ◽  
Anna H. Rensink ◽  
Jaweria Jaweria ◽  
Daniel Bopp ◽  
...  

AbstractSex determination, the developmental process by which sexually dimorphic phenotypes are established, evolves fast. Species with polygenic sex determination, in which master regulatory genes are found on multiple different proto-sex chromosomes, are informative models to study the evolution of sex determination. House flies are such a model system, with male determining loci possible on all six chromosomes and a female-determiner on one of the chromosomes as well. The distributions of the two most common male-determining proto-Y chromosomes across natural populations suggests that temperature variation is an important selection pressure responsible for maintaining polygenic sex determination in this species. To test that hypothesis, we used RNA-seq to identify temperature-dependent effects of the proto-Y chromosomes on gene expression. We find no evidence for ecologically meaningful temperature-dependent expression of sex determining genes between male genotypes, but we identified hundreds of other genes whose expression depends on the interaction between proto-Y chromosome genotype and temperature. Notably, genes with genotype-by-temperature interactions on expression are not enriched on the proto-sex chromosomes. Moreover, there is no evidence that temperature-dependent expression is driven by chromosome-wide expression divergence between the proto-Y and proto-X alleles. Therefore, if temperature-dependent gene expression is responsible for differences in phenotypes and fitness of proto-Y genotypes across house fly populations, these effects are driven by a small number of temperature-dependent alleles on the proto-Y chromosomes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brennan Hyden ◽  
Craig H. Carlson ◽  
Fred E. Gouker ◽  
Jeremy Schmutz ◽  
Kerrie Barry ◽  
...  

AbstractSex dimorphism and gene expression were studied in developing catkins in 159 F2 individuals from the bioenergy crop Salix purpurea, and potential mechanisms and pathways for regulating sex development were explored. Differential expression, eQTL, bisulfite sequencing, and network analysis were used to characterize sex dimorphism, detect candidate master regulator genes, and identify pathways through which the sex determination region (SDR) may mediate sex dimorphism. Eleven genes are presented as candidates for master regulators of sex, supported by gene expression and network analyses. These include genes putatively involved in hormone signaling, epigenetic modification, and regulation of transcription. eQTL analysis revealed a suite of transcription factors and genes involved in secondary metabolism and floral development that were predicted to be under direct control of the sex determination region. Furthermore, data from bisulfite sequencing and small RNA sequencing revealed strong differences in expression between males and females that would implicate both of these processes in sex dimorphism pathways. These data indicate that the mechanism of sex determination in Salix purpurea is likely different from that observed in the related genus Populus. This further demonstrates the dynamic nature of SDRs in plants, which involves a multitude of mechanisms of sex determination and a high rate of turnover.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Horacio Merchant-Larios ◽  
Verónica Díaz-Hernández ◽  
Diego Cortez

The discovery in mammals that fetal testes are required in order to develop the male phenotype inspired research efforts to elucidate the mechanisms underlying gonadal sex determination and differentiation in vertebrates. A pioneer work in 1966 that demonstrated the influence of incubation temperature on sexual phenotype in some reptilian species triggered great interest in the environment’s role as a modulator of plasticity in sex determination. Several chelonian species have been used as animal models to test hypotheses concerning the mechanisms involved in temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD). This brief review intends to outline the history of scientific efforts that corroborate our current understanding of the state-of-the-art in TSD using chelonian species as a reference.


2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander E. Quinn ◽  
Stephen D. Sarre ◽  
Tariq Ezaz ◽  
Jennifer A. Marshall Graves ◽  
Arthur Georges

Sex in many organisms is a dichotomous phenotype—individuals are either male or female. The molecular pathways underlying sex determination are governed by the genetic contribution of parents to the zygote, the environment in which the zygote develops or interaction of the two, depending on the species. Systems in which multiple interacting influences or a continuously varying influence (such as temperature) determines a dichotomous outcome have at least one threshold. We show that when sex is viewed as a threshold trait, evolution in that threshold can permit novel transitions between genotypic and temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD) and remarkably, between male (XX/XY) and female (ZZ/ZW) heterogamety. Transitions are possible without substantive genotypic innovation of novel sex-determining mutations or transpositions, so that the master sex gene and sex chromosome pair can be retained in ZW–XY transitions. We also show that evolution in the threshold can explain all observed patterns in vertebrate TSD, when coupled with evolution in embryonic survivorship limits.


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