Two novel genomes of fireflies with different degrees of sexual dimorphism reveal insights into sex-biased gene expression and dosage compensation.

ABSTRACT: Sexual dimorphism arises because of divergent fitness optima between the sexes. Phenotypic divergence between sexes can range from mild to extreme. Fireflies, bioluminescent beetles, present various degrees of sexual dimorphism, with species showing very mild sexual dimorphism to species presenting female-specific neoteny, posing a unique framework to investigate the evolution of sexually dimorphic traits across species. In this work, we present novel assembled genomes of two firefly species, Lamprohiza splendidula and Luciola italica, species with different degrees of sexual dimorphism. We uncover high synteny conservation of the X-chromosome across ~ 180 Mya and find full X-chromosome dosage compensation in our two fireflies, hinting at common mechanism upregulating the single male X-chr

SUBMITTER: Catalan A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11283472 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature