Speciation in black flies

Genome ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 500-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Rothfels

In many Simuliidae, patterns of spatial and temporal relationships among the most closely related species are more readily interpreted in terms of sympatric speciation than of allopatric speciation. Specific examples are (i) the allotriploid taxa in Gymnopais and other genera, (ii) the black fly faunas of geologically recent islands (Tahiti), and (iii) species in Prosimulium onychodactylum, a prototype of a continental multisibling species complex. A model of sympatric speciation is presented based on coadaptation of polymorphic sex chromosomes in pairs reinforced by progressive development of assortative mating. This model predicts that (i) populations should frequently exhibit sex-chromosome polymorphism, (ii) these sex-chromosome polymorphisms, and autosomal ones, should in some cases display linkage or association disequilibria, (iii) species pairs or complexes should be incurred that differ only in sex chromosomes and that share extensive ancestral autosomal polymorphisms, and (iv) such species should differ in their biology and perhaps their present-day distribution. Recent publications and observations are in accordance, in general, with predictions from the model. Genetic control, e.g., of diapause, larval developmental timing, and niche preference or ethology, could substitute as a basis of incipient cleavage. The evidence for sympatric speciation is purely inferential, but this is equally true for the allopatric interpretation, and in black flies the circumstantial evidence for prevalence of sympatric speciation appears more compelling. This is not to deny the efficacy of allopatry and founder effect in the origin of some species complexes.Key words: sympatric speciation, black fly, evolution.

Genome ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 538-542 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Feraday ◽  
K. G. Leonhardt ◽  
C. L. Brockhouse

Sex chromosomes have been repeatedly implicated in the process of speciation of black flies and other nemotocerans. Arguments are presented here against the case that frequent differences between species in their sex chromosomes are based on (i) different average rates of differentiation of sex-linked and autosomal loci or (ii) the fact that the X and Y chromosomes are less numerous than autosomal chromosomes and so are more subject to the effects of drift and the random fixation of chromosome rearrangements. The argument is made that speciation in black flies and many other groups is an adaptive process and that differentiated sex-chromosome systems play a role in this process.Key words: black flies, sex chromosomes, speciation, evolution.


Zootaxa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4377 (2) ◽  
pp. 280 ◽  
Author(s):  
MATÚŠ KÚDELA ◽  
PETER H. ADLER ◽  
TATIANA KÚDELOVÁ

The black fly Prosimulium italicum Rivosecchi, distributed in the Apennines and Sicily, was described as a subspecies of Prosimulium hirtipes (Fries), based on a few morphological details. It subsequently was considered conspecific with P. hirtipes and the name was synonymized. Analyses of polytene chromosome banding patterns and sequences of mitochondrial DNA (COI and COII) revealed deep genetic divergence between P. italicum from Italy and P. hirtipes from northern and central Europe and confirmed the species status of P. italicum. Populations of P. italicum either lack chromosomal inversion IS-9 or carry it as an X-chromosome polymorphism, whereas all analyzed populations of P. hirtipes (Slovakia, Sweden, England, and Scotland) are fixed for IS-9. The average K2P genetic distance was 3.7% between P. italicum and P. hirtipes from northern Europe (Sweden) and 4.3 % between P. italicum and P. hirtipes from central Europe (Slovakia). Cytogenetic analysis showed the presence of two cytoforms of P. hirtipes (‘A’ in Sweden and Slovakia and ‘B’ in England and Scotland) and two cytoforms of P. italicum (‘A’ in Sicily and ‘B’ in Campania and Basilicata), all of which differ in their sex chromosomes and autosomal polymorphisms, suggesting that P. hirtipes and P. italicum might each be a complex of cryptic species. 


2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (52) ◽  
pp. 15036-15041 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sébastien Leclercq ◽  
Julien Thézé ◽  
Mohamed Amine Chebbi ◽  
Isabelle Giraud ◽  
Bouziane Moumen ◽  
...  

Sex determination is a fundamental developmental pathway governing male and female differentiation, with profound implications for morphology, reproductive strategies, and behavior. In animals, sex differences between males and females are generally determined by genetic factors carried by sex chromosomes. Sex chromosomes are remarkably variable in origin and can differ even between closely related species, indicating that transitions occur frequently and independently in different groups of organisms. The evolutionary causes underlying sex chromosome turnover are poorly understood, however. Here we provide evidence indicating that Wolbachia bacterial endosymbionts triggered the evolution of new sex chromosomes in the common pillbug Armadillidium vulgare. We identified a 3-Mb insert of a feminizing Wolbachia genome that was recently transferred into the pillbug nuclear genome. The Wolbachia insert shows perfect linkage to the female sex, occurs in a male genetic background (i.e., lacking the ancestral W female sex chromosome), and is hemizygous. Our results support the conclusion that the Wolbachia insert is now acting as a female sex-determining region in pillbugs, and that the chromosome carrying the insert is a new W sex chromosome. Thus, bacteria-to-animal horizontal genome transfer represents a remarkable mechanism underpinning the birth of sex chromosomes. We conclude that sex ratio distorters, such as Wolbachia endosymbionts, can be powerful agents of evolutionary transitions in sex determination systems in animals.


1982 ◽  
Vol 60 (11) ◽  
pp. 2866-2878 ◽  
Author(s):  
William S. Procunier

Cytological descriptions and phylogenetic relationships are presented for the genus Cnephia s. str. All members are male achiasmate. Cnephia lapponica is unique in that its basic chromosome complement is reduced from n = 3 to n = 2 metacentrics as a result of a fusion of chromosomes II and III. Sex chromosome differentiation varies from nonobservable in C. ornithophilia and C. eremites through C. pecuarum in which the standard and IS-5 sequences are distributed differentially over X and Y chromosomes, to the polytypic system of C. lapponica in which the X chromosome is fixed for expression of the nucleolar organizer (NO) and the Y chromosome for nonexpression. Further, in a Norwegian population of C. lapponica, males are additionally interchange heterozygotes. Thus, a multiple sex chromosome system exists in which all the chromosomes are sex chromosomes. Closest members occur sympatrically and differ by sex chromosomes and at least one fixed inversion; more distant taxa differ by a number of fixed inversions as well as sex chromosomes. The identical bands 17B and 24C, which appear in a thin or enhanced form, are polymorphic, sex-linked, fixed, or lost in different members of the group. This study supports a model for sympatric speciation.


Genome ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 522-530
Author(s):  
Fiona F. Hunter

To test whether Simulium furculatum (Shewell) belongs to the Simulium vernum (Macquart) species-group, a comparison was made of the polytene chromosomes of S. furculatum and the S. vernum "Knebworth" standard. Only two chromosome arms (of six) could be completely analysed. It is argued that S. furculatum does not belong to the S. vernum species-group. A complex sex-chromosome system (X1, X2, Y1) is found in both eastern and western Canada. Phylogenetically, the single Y chromosome is intermediate between the two X chromosomes. Intraspecific inversion polymorphisms, which serve to differentiate eastern from western populations, are also identified. Only one sibling is indicated.Key words: black flies, Simulium furculatum, Simulium vernum, cytotaxonomy, polytene chromosomes, sex chromosomes.


1984 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 647-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. F. Mason

These studies on the Simulium tuberosum complex have revealed the presence of a number of closely related sibling species which are distinguished by the banding pattern on their sex chromosomes. Collections were made over wide geographic areas of North America and the distributions of the various types found were recorded. Included are areas in northeastern United States with sites at which a number of the sibling species are sympatric. At these sites the separation of one taxa from another is not clear and a number of intra- and inter-sibling sex chromosome polymorphisms were detected. Included in these polymorphs were larvae with unusual chromosome combinations, including females with heteromorphic sex chromosomes. Arguments are made for some of the divisions as distinct species and for sex chromosome polymorphism in others. Based on the evidence of the geographic distribution, it is suggested that the area of sympatry in which polymorphism in all of the division of the complex was found is a primary zone of speciation.


Genome ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 543-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. G. Leonhardt ◽  
R. M. Feraday

The pattern of sex-chromosome variation within and between species of the Eusimulium aureum species group of black flies is examined and used to support the argument that speciation in black flies is often an adaptive process. A pair of homosequential species in this group is presented as an exceptional case in black flies that does not argue against the chromosomally mediated speciation model.Key words: black flies, sex chromosomes, evolution.


2017 ◽  
Vol 151 (4) ◽  
pp. 198-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michail T. Rovatsos ◽  
Juan A. Marchal ◽  
Ismael Romero-Fernández ◽  
Maria Arroyo ◽  
Eva B. Athanasopoulou ◽  
...  

The sibling species Microtus thomasi and M. atticus represent probably the highest karyotypic diversity within the genus Microtus and are an interesting model for chromosomal evolution studies. In addition to variation in autosomes, they show a high intraspecific variation in the size and morphology of both sex chromosomes. We analyzed individuals with different sex chromosome constitutions using 3 painting probes, 2 from Y chromosome variants and 1 from the small arm of the submetacentric X chromosome. Our comparative painting approach uncovered 12 variants of Y and 14 variants of X chromosomes, which demonstrates that the polymorphism of sex chromosomes is substantially larger than previously reported. We suggest that 2 main processes are responsible for this sex chromosome polymorphism: change of morphology from acrocentric to submetacentric or metacentric chromosomes and increase in size due to accumulation of repetitive DNA sequences, generating heterochromatic blocks. Strong genetic drift in small and fragmented populations of these 2 species could be related to the origin and maintenance of the large polymorphism of sex chromosomes. We proposed that a similar polymorphism variation combined with random drift fixing the biggest sex chromosomes could have occurred in the origin of some of the actual Microtus species with giant sex chromosomes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1832) ◽  
pp. 20200095 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xue-Ying Song ◽  
Benjamin L. S. Furman ◽  
Tharindu Premachandra ◽  
Martin Knytl ◽  
Caroline M. S. Cauret ◽  
...  

The tempo of sex chromosome evolution—how quickly, in what order, why and how their particular characteristics emerge during evolution—remains poorly understood. To understand this further, we studied three closely related species of African clawed frog (genus Xenopus ), that each has independently evolved sex chromosomes. We identified population polymorphism in the extent of sex chromosome differentiation in wild-caught Xenopus borealis that corresponds to a large, previously identified region of recombination suppression. This large sex-linked region of X. borealis has an extreme concentration of genes that encode transcripts with sex-biased expression, and we recovered similar findings in the smaller sex-linked regions of Xenopus laevis and Xenopus tropicalis . In two of these species, strong skews in expression (mostly female-biased in X. borealis , mostly male-biased in X. tropicalis ) are consistent with expectations associated with recombination suppression, and in X. borealis , we hypothesize that a degenerate ancestral Y-chromosome transitioned into its contemporary Z-chromosome. These findings indicate that Xenopus species are tolerant of differences between the sexes in dosage of the products of multiple genes, and offer insights into how evolutionary transformations of ancestral sex chromosomes carry forward to affect the function of new sex chromosomes. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Challenging the paradigm in sex chromosome evolution: empirical and theoretical insights with a focus on vertebrates (Part I)’.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolina Crepaldi ◽  
Emiliano Martí ◽  
Évelin Mariani Gonçalves ◽  
Dardo Andrea Martí ◽  
Patricia Pasquali Parise-Maltempi

Neotropical fishes have highly diversified karyotypic and genomic characteristics and present many diverse sex chromosome systems, with various degrees of sex chromosome differentiation. Knowledge on their sex-specific composition and evolution, however, is still limited. Satellite DNAs (satDNAs) are tandemly repeated sequences with pervasive genomic distribution and distinctive evolutionary pathways, and investigating satDNA content might shed light into how genome architecture is organized in fishes and in their sex chromosomes. The present study investigated the satellitome of Megaleporinus elongatus, a freshwater fish with a proposed Z1Z1Z2Z2/Z1W1Z2W2 multiple sex chromosome system that encompasses a highly heterochromatic and differentiated W1 chromosome. The species satellitome comprises of 140 different satDNA families, including previously isolated sequences and new families found in this study. This diversity is remarkable considering the relatively low proportion that satDNAs generally account for the M. elongatus genome (around only 5%). Differences between the sexes in regards of satDNA content were also evidenced, as these sequences are 14% more abundant in the female genome. The occurrence of sex-biased signatures of satDNA evolution in the species is tightly linked to satellite enrichment associated with W1 in females. Although both sexes share practically all satDNAs, the overall massive amplification of only a few of them accompanied the W1 differentiation. We also investigated the expansion and diversification of the two most abundant satDNAs of M. elongatus, MelSat01-36 and MelSat02-26, both highly amplified sequences in W1 and, in MelSat02-26’s case, also harbored by Z2 and W2 chromosomes. We compared their occurrences in M. elongatus and the sister species M. macrocephalus (with a standard ZW sex chromosome system) and concluded that both satDNAs have led to the formation of highly amplified arrays in both species; however, they formed species-specific organization on female-restricted sex chromosomes. Our results show how satDNA composition is highly diversified in M. elongatus, in which their accumulation is significantly contributing to W1 differentiation and not satDNA diversity per se. Also, the evolutionary behavior of these repeats may be associated with genome plasticity and satDNA variability between the sexes and between closely related species, influencing how seemingly homeologous heteromorphic sex chromosomes undergo independent satDNA evolution.


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