scholarly journals Mismatches between the genetic and phenotypic sex in the wild Kou population of Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e7709 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rokyatou Sissao ◽  
Helena D’Cotta ◽  
Jean-François Baroiller ◽  
Aboubacar Toguyeni

Sex determination and sex chromosomes can be very diverse between teleost species. The group of tilapias shows a polymorphism in sex determination not only between closely related species but also between domestic strains within a species. In the Nile tilapia, the major effect genes and therefore the Y chromosome have been located on either linkage group 1 (LG1) or LG23 depending on the strains. In a Japanese strain, the sex determinant of LG23 (the amhY gene) has been identified as a duplicated amh (anti-Müllerian hormone) gene, with its gametolog found on the X chromosome (amhX). AmhY is located in tandem with the amhΔY gene (a truncated form) on the Y chromosome. X and Y chromosome markers based on the amh genes have been validated only on a few domestic strains but not in wild populations. Here, we used four of these markers in order to examine (1) the possible variation in sex determination of a wild population of Nile tilapia living in Lake Kou (Burkina Faso), (2) putative polymorphisms for these amh copies and (3) the existence of sex reversed individuals in the wild. Our genotyping of 91 wild Kou individuals with the amh sex-diagnostic markers of LG23 showed that while phenotypic females were all XX, phenotypic males were either XY or XX. Progeny testing of eight of these XX males revealed that one of these males consistently sired all-female progenies, suggesting that it is a wild sex reversed male (which could result from high temperature effects). The other XX males gave balanced sex ratios, suggesting that sex is controlled by another locus (possibly on another LG) which may be epistatically dominant over the LG23 locus. Finally, identification of unexpected amh genotypes was found for two individuals. They produced either balanced or female-biased sex ratios, depending on the breeder with whom they were crossed, suggesting possible recombination between the X and the Y chromosomes.

Development ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 101 (Supplement) ◽  
pp. 39-39
Author(s):  
P. N. Goodfellow

DNA probes isolated from the human Y chromosome have been used to resolve two fundamental problems concerning the biology of sex determination in man. Coincidentally, resolution of these problems has generated genetic maps of the short arm of the human Y chromosome and has allowed the regional localization of TDF. The first problem to be solved was the origin of XX males (de la Chapelle, this symposium): the majority of XX males are caused by a telomeric exchange between the X and Y chromosomes that results in TDF and a variable amount of Y-derived material being transferred to the X chromosome. The differing amounts of Y-derived material present in XX males has been used as the basis of a ‘deletion’ map of the Y chromosome (Müller; Ferguson-Smith & Affara; this symposium).


Genetics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingyong Liu ◽  
Shengfei Dai ◽  
Jiahong Wu ◽  
Xueyan Wei ◽  
Xin Zhou ◽  
...  

Abstract Duplicates of amh are crucial for fish sex determination and differentiation. In Nile tilapia, unlike in other teleosts, amh is located on X chromosome. The Y chromosome amh (amh△-y) is mutated with 5 bp insertion and 233 bp deletion in the coding sequence, and tandem duplicate of amh on Y chromosome (amhy) has been identified as the sex determiner. However, the expression of amh, amh△-y and amhy, their roles in germ cell proliferation and the molecular mechanism of how amhy determines sex is still unclear. In this study, expression and functions of each duplicate were analyzed. Sex reversal occurred only when amhy was mutated as revealed by single, double and triple mutation of the three duplicates in XY fish. Homozygous mutation of amhy in YY fish also resulted in sex reversal. Earlier and higher expression of amhy/Amhy was observed in XY gonads compared with amh/Amh during sex determination. Amhy could inhibit the transcription of cyp19a1a through Amhr2/Smads signaling. Loss of cyp19a1a rescued the sex reversal phenotype in XY fish with amhy mutation. Interestingly, mutation of both amh and amhy in XY fish or homozygous mutation of amhy in YY fish resulted in infertile females with significantly increased germ cell proliferation. Taken together, these results indicated that up-regulation of amhy during the critical period of sex determination makes it the sex-determining gene, and it functions through repressing cyp19a1a expression via Amhr2/Smads signaling pathway. Amh retained its function in controlling germ cell proliferation as reported in other teleosts, while amh△-y was nonfunctionalized.


Genome ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 870-878 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred G. Biddle ◽  
Yutaka Nishioka

The Y chromosome of Mus musculus poschiavinus interacts with the autosomal recessive gene tda-1b of the C57BL/6J laboratory strain of the house mouse to cause complete or partial sex reversal. Ovaries or ovotestes develop in a substantial proportion of the XY fetuses. Several different Y-specific DNA probes distinguish two major types of Y chromosome in the house mouse and they are represented by M. m. domesticus and M. m. musculus. The poschiavinus Y chromosome appears identical to the domesticus Y. The developmental distribution of the gonad types was examined in the first backcross or N2 generation of fetuses in C57BL/6J with six different domesticus-type Y chromosomes and, as controls, three different musculus-type Y chromosomes. Gonadal hermaphrodites were found with three of the six domesticus-type Y chromosomes. Both overall frequency and phenotypic distribution of types of gonadal hermaphrodites identify three classes of domesticus-type Y chromosome by their differential interaction with the C57BL/6J genetic background.Key words: mouse, Y chromosomes, gonadal hermaphrodites, primary sex determination.


Author(s):  
Jae Hak Son ◽  
Richard P. Meisel

AbstractX and Y chromosomes are usually derived from a pair of homologous autosomes, which then diverge from each other over time. Although Y-specific features have been characterized in sex chromosomes of various ages, the earliest stages of Y chromosome evolution remain elusive. In particular, we do not know whether early stages of Y chromosome evolution consist of changes to individual genes or happen via chromosome-scale divergence from the X. To address this question, we quantified divergence between young proto-X and proto-Y chromosomes in the house fly, Musca domestica. We compared proto-sex chromosome sequence and gene expression between genotypic (XY) and sex-reversed (XX) males. We find evidence for sequence divergence between genes on the proto-X and proto-Y, including five genes with mitochondrial functions. There is also an excess of genes with divergent expression between the proto-X and proto-Y, but the number of genes is small. This suggests that individual proto-Y genes, but not the entire proto-Y chromosome, have diverged from the proto-X. We identified one gene, encoding an axonemal dynein assembly factor (which functions in sperm motility), that has higher expression in XY males than XX males because of a disproportionate contribution of the proto-Y allele to gene expression. The up-regulation of the proto-Y allele may be favored in males because of this gene’s function in spermatogenesis. The evolutionary divergence between proto-X and proto-Y copies of this gene, as well as the mitochondrial genes, is consistent with selection in males affecting the evolution of individual genes during early Y chromosome evolution.


Both mouse and man have the common XX/XY sex chromosome mechanism. The X chromosome is of original size (5-6% of female haploid set) and the Y is one of the smallest chromosomes of the complement. But there are species, belonging to a variety of orders, with composite sex chromosomes and multiple sex chromosome systems: XX/XY 1 Y 2 and X 1 X 1 X 2 X 2 /X 1 X 2 Y. The original X or the Y, respectively, have been translocated on to an autosome. The sex chromosomes of these species segregate regularly at meiosis; two kinds of sperm and one kind of egg are produced and the sex ratio is the normal 1:1. Individuals with deviating sex chromosome constitutions (XXY, XYY, XO or XXX) have been found in at least 16 mammalian species other than man. The phenotypic manifestations of these deviating constitutions are briefly discussed. In the dog, pig, goat and mouse exceptional XX males and in the horse XY females attract attention. Certain rodents have complicated mechanisms for sex determination: Ellobius lutescens and Tokudaia osimensis have XO males and females. Both sexes of Microtus oregoni are gonosomic mosaics (male OY/XY, female XX/XO). The wood lemming, Myopus schisticolor , the collared lemming, Dicrostonyx torquatus , and perhaps also one or two species of the genus Akodon have XX and XY females and XY males. The XX, X*X and X*Y females of Myopus and Dicrostonyx are discussed in some detail. The wood lemming has proved to be a favourable natural model for studies in sex determination, because a large variety of sex chromosome aneuploids are born relatively frequently. The dosage model for sex determination is not supported by the wood lemming data. For male development, genes on both the X and the Y chromosomes are necessary.


Accidental recombination between the differential segments of the X and Y chromosomes in man occasionally allows transfer of Y-linked sequences to the X chromosome leading to testis differentiation in so-called XX males. Loss of the same sequences by X-Y interchange allows female differentiation in a small proportion of individuals with XY gonadal dysgenesis. A candidate gene responsible for primary sex determination has recently been cloned from within this part of the Y chromosome by Page and his colleagues. The observation that a homologue of this gene is present on the short arm of the X chromosome and is subject to X-inactivation, raises the intriguing possibility that sex determination in man is a quantitative trait. Males have two active doses of the gonad determining gene, and females have one dose. This hypothesis has been tested in a series of XX males, XY females and XX true hermaphrodites by using a genomic probe, CMPXY1, obtained by probing a Y-specific DNA library with synthetic oligonucleotides based on the predicted amino-acid sequence of the sex-determining protein. The findings in most cases are consistent with the hypothesis of homologous gonad-determining genes, GDX and GDY , carried by the X and Y chromosomes respectively. It is postulated that in sporadic or familial XX true hermaphrodites one of the GDX loci escapes X-inactivation because of mutation or chromosomal rearrangement, resulting in mosaicism for testis and ovary-determining cell lines in somatic cells. Y-negative XX males belong to the same clinical spectrum as XX true hermaphrodites, and gonadal dysgenesis in some XY females may be due to sporadic or familial mutations of GDX .


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paris Veltsos ◽  
Nicolas Rodrigues ◽  
Tania Studer ◽  
Wen-Juan Ma ◽  
Roberto Sermier ◽  
...  

AbstractThe canonical model of sex-chromosome evolution assigns a key role to sexually antagonistic (SA) genes on the arrest of recombination and ensuing degeneration of Y chromosomes. This assumption cannot be tested in organisms with highly differentiated sex chromosomes, such as mammals or birds, owing to the lack of polymorphism. Fixation of SA alleles, furthermore, might be the consequence rather than the cause of recombination arrest. Here we focus on a population of common frogs (Rana temporaria) where XY males with genetically differentiated Y chromosomes (non-recombinant Y haplotypes) coexist with both XY° males with proto-Y chromosomes (only differentiated from X chromosomes in the immediate vicinity of the candidate sex-determining locus Dmrt1) and XX males with undifferentiated sex chromosomes (genetically identical to XX females). Our study shows no effect of sex-chromosome differentiation on male phenotype, mating success or fathering success. Our conclusions rejoin genomic studies that found no differences in gene expression between XY, XY° and XX males. Sexual dimorphism in common frogs seems to result from the differential expression of autosomal genes rather than sex-linked SA genes. Among-male variance in sex-chromosome differentiation is better explained by a polymorphism in the penetrance of alleles at the sex locus, resulting in variable levels of sex reversal (and thus of X-Y recombination in XY females), independent of sex-linked SA genes.Impact SummaryHumans, like other mammals, present highly differentiated sex chromosomes, with a large, gene-rich X chromosome contrasting with a small, gene-poor Y chromosome. This differentiation results from a process that started approximately 160 Mya, when the Y first stopped recombining with the X. How and why this happened, however, remain controversial. According to the canonical model, the process was initiated by sexually antagonistic selection; namely, selection on the proto-Y chromosome for alleles that were beneficial to males but detrimental to females. The arrest of XY recombination then allowed such alleles to be only transmitted to sons, not to daughters. Although appealing and elegant, this model can no longer be tested in mammals, as it requires a sex-chromosome system at an incipient stage of evolution. Here we focus on a frog that displays within-population polymorphism is sex-chromosome differentiation, where XY males with differentiated chromosomes coexist with XX males lacking Y chromosomes. We find no effect of sex-chromosome differentiation on male phenotype or mating success, opposing expectations from the standard model. Sex linked genes do not seem to have a disproportionate effect on sexual dimorphism. From our results, sexually antagonistic genes show no association with sex-chromosome differentiation in frogs, which calls for alternative models of sex-chromosome evolution.


Development ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 101 (Supplement) ◽  
pp. 117-118
Author(s):  
Jonathan Wolfe

From the moment that the major part of the mammalian Y chromosome ceased to recombine with the X, the action of Muller's ratchet began to whittle away at it to remove all but the essential genes. Consequently, by comparison with their respective X homologues, both human and mouse Y chromosomes are relatively small and probably contain very few genes in a fabric of accumulated junk. Nevertheless, molecular biologists have not been deterred from searching for Y-linked genes and in recent years this has become an increasingly popular pastime. Although hard to find, any Y-linked genes are likely to play important roles in either sex determination or male fertility, a fact which has spurred the search. How many genes are likely to be present on the chromosome? If we accept the hypothesis that most genes are preceded by an HpaII tiny fragment (HTF) island, we can place an upper limit on the number of genes by considering the frequency with which such islands occur on the chromosome.


Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1770
Author(s):  
Paul A. Saunders ◽  
Frédéric Veyrunes

Therian mammals have among the oldest and most conserved sex-determining systems known to date. Any deviation from the standard XX/XY mammalian sex chromosome constitution usually leads to sterility or poor fertility, due to the high differentiation and specialization of the X and Y chromosomes. Nevertheless, a handful of rodents harbor so-called unusual sex-determining systems. While in some species, fertile XY females are found, some others have completely lost their Y chromosome. These atypical species have fascinated researchers for over 60 years, and constitute unique natural models for the study of fundamental processes involved in sex determination in mammals and vertebrates. In this article, we review current knowledge of these species, discuss their similarities and differences, and attempt to expose how the study of their exceptional sex-determining systems can further our understanding of general processes involved in sex chromosome and sex determination evolution.


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