scholarly journals Change of the Heterogametic Sex From Male to Female in the Frog

Genetics ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 164 (2) ◽  
pp. 613-620 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Ogata ◽  
H Ohtani ◽  
T Igarashi ◽  
Y Hasegawa ◽  
Y Ichikawa ◽  
...  

Abstract Two different types of sex chromosomes, XX/XY and ZZ/ZW, exist in the Japanese frog Rana rugosa. They are separated in two local forms that share a common origin in hybridization between the other two forms (West Japan and Kanto) with male heterogametic sex determination and homomorphic sex chromosomes. In this study, to find out how the different types of sex chromosomes differentiated, particularly the evolutionary reason for the heterogametic sex change from male to female, we performed artificial crossings between the West Japan and Kanto forms and mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The crossing results showed male bias using mother frogs with West Japan cytoplasm and female bias using those with Kanto cytoplasm. The mitochondrial genes of ZZ/ZW and XX/XY forms, respectively, were similar in sequence to those of the West Japan and Kanto forms. These results suggest that in the primary ZZ/ZW form, the West Japan strain was maternal and thus male bias was caused by the introgression of the Kanto strain while in the primary XX/XY form and vice versa. We therefore hypothesize that sex ratio bias according to the maternal origin of the hybrid population was a trigger for the sex chromosome differentiation and the change of heterogametic sex.

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (34) ◽  
pp. E4752-E4761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Álvaro S. Roco ◽  
Allen W. Olmstead ◽  
Sigmund J. Degitz ◽  
Tosikazu Amano ◽  
Lyle B. Zimmerman ◽  
...  

Homomorphic sex chromosomes and rapid turnover of sex-determining genes can complicate establishing the sex chromosome system operating in a given species. This difficulty exists in Xenopus tropicalis, an anuran quickly becoming a relevant model for genetic, genomic, biochemical, and ecotoxicological research. Despite the recent interest attracted by this species, little is known about its sex chromosome system. Direct evidence that females are the heterogametic sex, as in the related species Xenopus laevis, has yet to be presented. Furthermore, X. laevis’ sex-determining gene, DM-W, does not exist in X. tropicalis, and the sex chromosomes in the two species are not homologous. Here we identify X. tropicalis’ sex chromosome system by integrating data from (i) breeding sex-reversed individuals, (ii) gynogenesis, (iii) triploids, and (iv) crosses among several strains. Our results indicate that at least three different types of sex chromosomes exist: Y, W, and Z, observed in YZ, YW, and ZZ males and in ZW and WW females. Because some combinations of parental sex chromosomes produce unisex offspring and other distorted sex ratios, understanding the sex-determination systems in X. tropicalis is critical for developing this flexible animal model for genetics and ecotoxicology.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yisrael Rappaport ◽  
Hanna Achache ◽  
Roni Falk ◽  
Omer Murik ◽  
Oren Ram ◽  
...  

AbstractDuring meiosis, gene expression is silenced in aberrantly unsynapsed chromatin and in heterogametic sex chromosomes. Initiation of sex chromosome silencing is disrupted in meiocytes with sex chromosome-autosome translocations. To determine whether this is due to aberrant synapsis or loss of continuity of sex chromosomes, we engineered Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes with non-translocated, bisected X chromosomes. In early meiocytes of mutant males and hermaphrodites, X segments are enriched with euchromatin assembly markers and active RNA polymerase II staining, indicating active transcription. Analysis of RNA-seq data showed that genes from the X chromosome are upregulated in gonads of mutant worms. Contrary to previous models, which predicted that any unsynapsed chromatin is silenced during meiosis, our data indicate that unsynapsed X segments are transcribed. Therefore, our results suggest that sex chromosome chromatin has a unique character that facilitates its meiotic expression when its continuity is lost, regardless of whether or not it is synapsed.


Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 483
Author(s):  
Wen-Juan Ma ◽  
Paris Veltsos

Frogs are ideal organisms for studying sex chromosome evolution because of their diversity in sex chromosome differentiation and sex-determination systems. We review 222 anuran frogs, spanning ~220 Myr of divergence, with characterized sex chromosomes, and discuss their evolution, phylogenetic distribution and transitions between homomorphic and heteromorphic states, as well as between sex-determination systems. Most (~75%) anurans have homomorphic sex chromosomes, with XY systems being three times more common than ZW systems. Most remaining anurans (~25%) have heteromorphic sex chromosomes, with XY and ZW systems almost equally represented. There are Y-autosome fusions in 11 species, and no W-/Z-/X-autosome fusions are known. The phylogeny represents at least 19 transitions between sex-determination systems and at least 16 cases of independent evolution of heteromorphic sex chromosomes from homomorphy, the likely ancestral state. Five lineages mostly have heteromorphic sex chromosomes, which might have evolved due to demographic and sexual selection attributes of those lineages. Males do not recombine over most of their genome, regardless of which is the heterogametic sex. Nevertheless, telomere-restricted recombination between ZW chromosomes has evolved at least once. More comparative genomic studies are needed to understand the evolutionary trajectories of sex chromosomes among frog lineages, especially in the ZW systems.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Christian Riis Hansen ◽  
Kristen M. Westfall ◽  
Snaebjörn Pálsson

Abstract BackgroundWhole genomes are commonly assembled into a collection of scaffolds and often lack annotations of autosomes, sex chromosomes, and organelle genomes (i.e., mitochondrial and chloroplast). As these chromosome types differ in effective population size and can have highly disparate evolutionary histories, it is imperative to take this information into account when analysing genomic variation. Here we assessed the accuracy of four methods for identifying the homogametic sex chromosome in a small population using two whole genome sequences (WGS) and 133 RAD sequences of white-tailed eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla): i) difference in read depth per scaffold in a male and a female, ii) heterozygosity per scaffold in a male and a female, iii) mapping to a reference genome of a related species (chicken) with identified sex chromosomes, and iv) analysis of SNP-loadings from a principal components analysis (PCA), based on the low-depth RADseq data. ResultsThe best performing approach was the reference mapping (method iii), which identified 98.12% of the expected homogametic sex chromosome (Z). The read depth per scaffold (method i) identified 86.41% of the homogametic sex chromosome with few false positives. The SNP-loading scores (method iv) found 78.6% of the Z-chromosome and had a false positive discovery rate of more than 10%. The heterozygosity per scaffold (method ii) did not provide clear results due to a lack of diversity in both the Z and autosomal chromosomes, and potential interference from the heterogametic sex chromosome (W). The evaluation of these methods also revealed 10 Mb of likely PAR and gametologous regions.ConclusionIdentification of the homogametic sex chromosome in a small population is best accomplished by reference mapping or examining read depth differences between sexes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. 20200648
Author(s):  
Nathan W. Anderson ◽  
Carl E. Hjelmen ◽  
Heath Blackmon

Chromosome fusion and fission are primary mechanisms of karyotype evolution. In particular, the fusion of a sex chromosome and an autosome has been proposed as a mechanism to resolve intralocus sexual antagonism. If sexual antagonism is common throughout the genome, we should expect to see an excess of fusions that join sex chromosomes and autosomes. Here, we present a null model that provides the probability of a sex chromosome autosome fusion, assuming all chromosomes have an equal probability of being involved in a fusion. This closed-form expression is applicable to both male and female heterogametic sex chromosome systems and can accommodate unequal proportions of fusions originating in males and females. We find that over 25% of all chromosomal fusions are expected to join a sex chromosome and an autosome whenever the diploid autosome count is fewer than 16, regardless of the sex chromosome system. We also demonstrate the utility of our model by analysing two contrasting empirical datasets: one from Drosophila and one from the jumping spider genus Habronattus . We find that in the case of Habronattus , there is a significant excess of sex chromosome autosome fusions but that in Drosophila there are far fewer sex chromosome autosome fusions than would be expected under our null model.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. e105315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taiki Kawagoshi ◽  
Yoshinobu Uno ◽  
Chizuko Nishida ◽  
Yoichi Matsuda

PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Rodrigues ◽  
Christophe Dufresnes

Species with undifferentiated sex chromosomes emerge as key organisms to understand the astonishing diversity of sex-determination systems. Whereas new genomic methods are widening opportunities to study these systems, the difficulty to separately characterize their X and Y homologous chromosomes poses limitations. Here we demonstrate that two simpleF-statistics calculated from sex-linked genotypes, namely the genetic distance (Fst) between sexes and the inbreeding coefficient (Fis) in the heterogametic sex, can be used as reliable proxies to compare sex-chromosome differentiation between populations. We correlated these metrics using published microsatellite data from two frog species (Hyla arboreaandRana temporaria), and show that they intimately relate to the overall amount of X–Y differentiation in populations. However, the fits for individual loci appear highly variable, suggesting that a dense genetic coverage will be needed for inferring fine-scale patterns of differentiation along sex-chromosomes. The applications of theseF-statistics, which implies little sampling requirement, significantly facilitate population analyses of sex-chromosomes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 965-977 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iulia Darolti ◽  
Alison E Wright ◽  
Judith E Mank

Abstract The loss of recombination triggers divergence between the sex chromosomes and promotes degeneration of the sex-limited chromosome. Several livebearers within the genus Poecilia share a male-heterogametic sex chromosome system that is roughly 20 Myr old, with extreme variation in the degree of Y chromosome divergence. In Poecilia picta, the Y is highly degenerate and associated with complete X chromosome dosage compensation. In contrast, although recombination is restricted across almost the entire length of the sex chromosomes in Poecilia reticulata and Poecilia wingei, divergence between the X chromosome and the Y chromosome is very low. This clade therefore offers a unique opportunity to study the forces that accelerate or hinder sex chromosome divergence. We used RNA-seq data from multiple families of both P. reticulata and P. wingei, the species with low levels of sex chromosome divergence, to differentiate X and Y coding sequences based on sex-limited SNP inheritance. Phylogenetic tree analyses reveal that occasional recombination has persisted between the sex chromosomes for much of their length, as X- and Y-linked sequences cluster by species instead of by gametolog. This incomplete recombination suppression maintains the extensive homomorphy observed in these systems. In addition, we see differences between the previously identified strata in the phylogenetic clustering of X–Y orthologs, with those that cluster by chromosome located in the older stratum, the region previously associated with the sex-determining locus. However, recombination arrest appears to have expanded throughout the sex chromosomes more gradually instead of through a stepwise process associated with inversions.


The male has proven to be the heterogametic sex in all mammals studied so far. As is well known, the males usually have the sex chromosomes XY and the females XX. In recent years, however, many exceptions from this general pattern have been discovered. With our present knowledge, the different sex chromosome mechanisms in mammals may be divided into five main groups, and the first of them into subgroups, as follows: (i) Species with XX/XY sex chromosomes: (a) X of original size (see below), Y small; (b) X large, Y small; (c) X large, Y large: (i) end-to-end association of X and Y at male meiosis, (ii) chiasma between X and Y at male meiosis. (ii) Species with XX/XY 1 Y 2 sex chromosomes. (iii) Species with X 1 X 1 X 2 X 2 /X 1 X 2 Y sex chromosomes. (iv) Species with complicated or unknown mechanisms for sex determination. (v) Species with mosaicism of the sex chromosomes, but apparently with an XX/XY mechanism for sex determination. The present contribution will mainly deal with unusual sex chromosome inheritance, that is the groups (ii), (iii) and (iv) above, but the other two groups will also be briefly discussed and examples will be given. Recently Raicu, Kirillova & Hamar (1969) described a new sex chromosome mechanism ( X 1 X 1 X 2 X 2 /X 1 X 2 Y 1 Y 2 ) in the vole Microtus arvalis , but this observation was not confirmed by Schmid (1969), who found an ordinary XX/XY mechanism with both X and Y readily identifiable and of ‘normal’ size, the X comprising 5.6% of ( n A + X) and Y being the smallest chromosome of the complement. Late DNA replication was demonstrated in the allocyclic X and in the Y. Also Wolf (1969) found normal sex chromosomes in this species with no multivalents at male meiosis.


BMC Genomics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik R. Hallingbäck ◽  
Pascal Pucholt ◽  
Pär K. Ingvarsson ◽  
Ann Christin Rönnberg-Wästljung ◽  
Sofia Berlin

Abstract Background Sex chromosomes are in some species largely undifferentiated (homomorphic) with restricted sex determination regions. Homomorphic but different sex chromosomes are found in the closely related genera Populus and Salix indicating flexible sex determination systems, ideal for studies of processes involved in sex chromosome evolution. We have performed genome-wide association studies of sex and analysed sex chromosomes in a population of 265 wild collected Salix viminalis accessions and studied the sex determining locus. Results A total of 19,592 markers were used in association analyses using both Fisher’s exact tests and a single-marker mixed linear model, which resulted in 48 and 41 sex-associated (SA) markers respectively. Across all 48 SA markers, females were much more often heterozygous than males, which is expected if females were the heterogametic sex. The majority of the SA markers were, based on positions in the S. purpurea genome, located on chromosome 15, previously demonstrated to be the sex chromosome. Interestingly, when mapping the genotyping-by-sequencing sequence tag harbouring the two SA markers with the highest significance to the S. viminalis genomic scaffolds, five regions of very high similarity were found: three on a scaffold that represents a part of chromosome 15, one on a scaffold that represents a part of chromosome 9 and one on a scaffold not anchored to the genome. Based on segregation differences of the alleles at the two marker positions and on differences in PCR amplification between females and males we conclude that females had multiple copies of this DNA fragment (chromosome 9 and 15), whereas males only had one (chromosome 9). We therefore postulate that the female specific sequences have been copied from chromosome 9 and inserted on chromosome 15, subsequently developing into a hemizygous W chromosome linked region. Conclusions Our results support that sex determination in S. viminalis is controlled by one locus on chromosome 15. The segregation patterns observed at the SA markers furthermore confirm that S. viminalis females are the heterogametic sex. We also identified a translocation from chromosome 9 to the W chromosome.


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