Neo-sex chromosomes in the black muntjac recapitulate incipient evolution of mammalian sex chromosomes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The regular mammalian X and Y chromosomes diverged from each other at least 166 to 148 million years ago, leaving few traces of their early evolution, including degeneration of the Y chromosome and evolution of dosage compensation.

Results

We studied the intriguing case of black muntjac, in which a recent X-autosome fusion and a subsequent large autosomal inversion within just the past 0.5 million years have led to inheritance patterns identical to the traditional X-Y (neo-sex chromosomes). We compared patterns of genome evolution in 35-kilobase noncoding regions and 23 gene pairs on the homologous neo-sex chromosomes. We found that neo-Y alleles have accumulated more mutations, comprising a wide variety of mutation types, which indicates cessation of recombinatio

SUBMITTER: Zhou Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2481430 | biostudies-literature | 2008

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature