Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Katrine K. Lund-Hansen, Colin Olito, Edward H. Morrow, Jessica K. Abbott
Summary: Antagonistic interactions between the sexes are important drivers of evolutionary divergence. When loci under interlocus sexual conflict are located on the sex chromosomes, it can lead to cycles of antagonistic coevolution between them and therefore between the sexes. Experimental crosses using Drosophila melanogaster showed that disrupting putatively coevolved sex chromosome pairs resulted in increased male reproductive success but also in lower offspring viability, with these sexually antagonistic fitness effects appearing to be resolved after 25 generations of experimental evolution. Population genetic models of antagonistic coevolution based on empirical results support the conclusion that antagonistic coevolution between the sex chromosomes is plausible and may drive genetic and phenotypic divergence between populations.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Biology
Andrius J. Dagilis, Jason M. Sardell, Matthew P. Josephson, Yiheng Su, Mark Kirkpatrick, Catherine L. Peichel
Summary: This study analyzes phased young sex chromosomes in the Japan Sea stickleback to detect signals of sexually antagonistic selection. The findings provide insights into the evolution of sex chromosomes, although the presence of demographic effects makes it challenging to determine the authenticity of these selection signals.
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Dmitry A. Filatov
Summary: The shift of the pseudoautosomal boundary on the sex chromosomes of Silene latifolia has led to an expansion of the non-recombining sex-specific region (NRY), including at least 16 pseudoautosomal genes. The pseudoautosomal genes in this region have elevated genetic diversity, likely due to balancing selection. Interspecific gene flow between S. latifolia and S. dioica may contribute to the recent shift of the pseudoautosomal boundary.
JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Aina Garcia-Raventos, Antonio Munoz-Merida, Oriol Lapiedra, Mar Unzeta, Mariona Ferrandiz-Rovira, Daniel Sol
Summary: This study developed a novel method for molecular sexing of birds based on the detection of unique Z- and W-linked SNP markers. The method accurately assigned the sex of individuals in a species with reduced sexual dimorphism and different maturity stages, with high reliability and accuracy.
MOLECULAR ECOLOGY RESOURCES
(2023)
Article
Biology
Filip Ruzicka, Tim Connallon
Summary: Mutations with beneficial effects in one sex can have deleterious effects in the other. These sexually antagonistic variants contribute to variations in life-history traits and overall fitness. However, their genomic distribution is still unclear. It is predicted that sexually antagonistic variants could be more common on the X chromosome or autosomes, but current empirical tests face challenges in identifying these variants in genomic data and show biases towards the X chromosome when measuring sexually antagonistic variation.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Miki Okuno, Shusei Mizushima, Asato Kuroiwa, Takehiko Itoh
Summary: Birds in the clade Palaeognathae, such as ostriches and emus, exhibit morphologically conserved karyotypes with less differentiated ZW sex chromosomes and exceptionally large recombining pseudoautosomal regions. By utilizing a novel assembly method, researchers successfully constructed phased assemblies for female emus, cassowaries, and ostriches, providing insights into the evolutionary process of sex chromosome transition in these birds. The study demonstrates that the Illumina-based phased assembly approach is effective for investigating the evolutionary trajectory of sex chromosome evolution in the clade Palaeognathae.
GENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Miki Okuno, Shusei Mizushima, Asato Kuroiwa, Takehiko Itoh
Summary: Birds in the clade Palaeognathae exhibit conserved karyotypes and less differentiated ZW sex chromosomes, with challenging construction and analysis of genome sequences due to low diversity between Z-linked and W-linked sequences. The Platanus-allee assembler was used to successfully construct haplotype-resolved assemblies for female emu, cassowary, and ostrich. Comparative genomic and phylogenetic analyses revealed insights into the evolution of sex chromosomes in Palaeognathae and highlighted the effectiveness of Illumina-based phased assembly for studying sex chromosome evolution.
GENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Joanna L. Rifkin, Felix E. G. Beaudry, Zoe Humphries, Baharul Choudhury, Spencer C. H. Barrett, Stephen Wright
Summary: The study suggests that low recombination rates may precede the formation of sex-linked regions, with large regions of recombination suppression found across all chromosomes. Additionally, gene and repetitive sequence density are correlated with recombination rates, with the variation patterns differing by repetitive element type.
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Mahul Chakraborty, Angelica Guadalupe Lara, Andrew Dang, Kyle J. McCulloch, Dylan Rainbow, David Carter, Luna Thanh Ngo, Edwin Solares, Iskander Said, Russell B. Corbett-Detig, Lawrence E. Gilbert, J. J. Emerson, Adriana D. Briscoe
Summary: This study discovered that gene traffic to the W chromosome is sufficient to achieve female-specific expression of UVRh1 in butterflies. This finding provides a new model for understanding the mechanism of sex bias.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Review
Ecology
Jon Alexander Harper, Tim Janicke, Edward H. Morrow
Summary: A review found that there are 22 genes in humans with sex-opposite effects, which may increase disease risk or severity in one sex but protect the other, with genes having net positive effects occurring at higher frequencies. The communication barriers between fields due to discipline-specific terminology are significant.
Article
Ecology
Ewan O. Flintham, Vincent Savolainen, Charles Mullon
Summary: The study shows that limited dispersal and kin competition within populations can affect the evolution of sexually antagonistic alleles, leading to a reduction in genetic variation and influencing the potential for sexual conflict. Inbreeding also plays a role in reducing the scope for sexually antagonistic polymorphism, especially on the X chromosome. Ultimately, spatial structure is an important factor in predicting the presence of sexually antagonistic alleles.
AMERICAN NATURALIST
(2021)
Review
Genetics & Heredity
Lei Sun, Zhong Wang, Tianyuan Lu, Teri A. Manolio, Andrew D. Paterson
Summary: A study conducted 10 years ago found that only 33% of GWAS results included the X chromosome, leading to recommendations to address this exclusion. However, a recent survey showed that in the NHGRI-EBI GWAS Catalog of 2021, only 25% of the reported results included the X chromosome and 3% included the Y chromosome, indicating that the exclusion persists and has become a more significant problem.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN GENETICS
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Hongbing She, Zhiyuan Liu, Shufen Li, Zhaosheng Xu, Helong Zhang, Feng Cheng, Jian Wu, Xiaowu Wang, Chuanliang Deng, Deborah Charlesworth, Wujun Gao, Wei Qian
Summary: Reference genomes for the X and Y haplotypes of spinach (Spinacia oleracea) were described by sequencing homozygous XX females and YY males. The presence of a Y duplication region and differences in repetitive sequences and pseudogenes suggest degeneration and reduced recombination in the Y-linked region. These findings contribute to a broader understanding of the origin of sex chromosomes in spinach.
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Takahiro Sakamoto, Hideki Innan
Summary: The turnover process of sex-determining loci consists of a stochastic phase and a deterministic phase. During the stochastic phase, a new sex-determining allele arises and random genetic drift plays a significant role, while during the deterministic phase, the allele increases in frequency through positive selection. Theoretical results suggest that the turnover of a newly arisen sex-determining locus benefits from selection at a linked locus under sexually antagonistic selection.
G3-GENES GENOMES GENETICS
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ayano Horiuchi, Kanae Masuda, Kenta Shirasawa, Noriyuki Onoue, Naoko Fujita, Koichiro Ushijima, Takashi Akagi
Summary: The study reveals that the Y chromosome in persimmon has lost its maleness-determining function and provides insights into the evolutionary process. The nonfunctional male-specific region of the Y chromosome in persimmon shares some characteristics with the original functional region. This study contributes to our understanding of plant sex chromosome evolution.
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
S. Qiu, R. Bergero, S. Guirao-Rico, J. L. Campos, T. Cezard, K. Gharbi, D. Charlesworth
Article
Ecology
J. L. Campos, S. Qiu, S. Guirao-Rico, R. Bergero, D. Charlesworth
Article
Ecology
N. Levsen, R. Bergero, D. Charlesworth, K. Wolff
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Yusuke Kazama, Kotaro Ishii, Wataru Aonuma, Tokihiro Ikeda, Hiroki Kawamoto, Ayako Koizumi, Dmitry A. Filatov, Margarita Chibalina, Roberta Bergero, Deborah Charlesworth, Tomoko Abe, Shigeyuki Kawano
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2016)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Roberta Bergero, Jim Gardner, Beth Bader, Lengxob Yong, Deborah Charlesworth
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2019)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Veronika Balounova, Roman Gogela, Radim Cegan, Patrik Cangren, Jitka Zluvova, Jan Safar, Viera Kovacova, Roberta Bergero, Roman Hobza, Boris Vyskot, Bengt Oxelman, Deborah Charlesworth, Bohuslav Janousek
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2019)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Roberta Bergero, Nick Levsen, Kirsten Wolff, Deborah Charlesworth
Letter
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Roberta Bergero, Deborah Charlesworth
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2019)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Deborah Charlesworth, Yexin Zhang, Roberta Bergero, Chay Graham, Jim Gardner, Lengxob Yong
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2020)
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Deborah Charlesworth, Roberta Bergero, Chay Graham, Jim Gardner, Lengxob Yong
G3-GENES GENOMES GENETICS
(2020)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Bonnie A. Fraser, James R. Whiting, Josephine R. Paris, Cameron J. Weadick, Paul J. Parsons, Deborah Charlesworth, Roberta Bergero, Felix Bemm, Margarete Hoffmann, Verena A. Kottler, Chang Liu, Christine Dreyer, Detlef Weigel
GENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2020)
Review
Biology
Roberta Bergero, Peter Ellis, Wilfried Haerty, Lee Larcombe, Iain Macaulay, Tarang Mehta, Mette Mogensen, David Murray, Will Nash, Matthew J. Neale, Rebecca O'Connor, Christian Ottolini, Ned Peel, Luke Ramsey, Ben Skinner, Alexander Suh, Michael Summers, Yu Sun, Alison Tidy, Raheleh Rahbari, Claudia Rathje, Simone Immler
Summary: The separation of germ cell populations from the soma plays a crucial role in genetic inheritance and evolutionary transition to multicellularity. Molecular processes affecting the germline genome, such as segregation, recombination, mutation, and selection, can alter allele frequencies and potentially deviate from Mendelian inheritance. The use of new sequencing technologies has opened up opportunities to delve into the micro-evolutionary processes occurring at the germline genome level.
BIOLOGICAL REVIEWS
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Suo Qiu, James M. Bradley, Peijun Zhang, Roy Chaudhuri, Mark Blaxter, Roger K. Butlin, Julie D. Scholes
Summary: This study reveals diverse strategies used by Striga hermonthica to overcome different layers of host resistance. Understanding the maintenance of variation at virulence loci by balancing selection is crucial for controlling the evolution of parasite virulence.
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Deborah Charlesworth, Suo Qiu, Roberta Bergero, Jim Gardner, Karen Keegan, Lengxob Yong, Abigail Hastings, Mateusz Konczal
Summary: Genome sequencing and genetic mapping of the guppy (Poecilia reticulata) have shown that the XY chromosome pair is nearly completely Y-linked. The factors controlling male-specific coloration traits also suggest sexual antagonism. However, occasional exchanges with the X chromosome and varying recombination patterns among natural guppy populations suggest ongoing evolution under selection from partially sex-linked sexual antagonism polymorphisms. Genetic maps were created using molecular markers in males from four guppy populations, and the similarity of these maps suggests that their crossover patterns have remained stable. The maps support previous findings that the terminal region of chromosome 12 is most associated with male traits, but it is incomplete. Additionally, occasional crossovers were observed in the male-determining region, defining a rarely recombining pseudautosomal region (PAR2). These results suggest that the guppy species may lack a completely male-specific region and that the male-determining factor is located within a small repetitive region. A sex-reversed XX male had few crossovers in PAR2, indicating that the low crossover rate in this region is influenced by phenotypic sex rather than genetic sex. Therefore, the presence of rare individuals with differing phenotypic and genetic sexes, as well as occasional PAR2 crossovers in males, may explain the failure to detect fully Y-linked variants in this species.