Widespread presence of human BOULE homologs among animals and conservation of their ancient reproductive function.

ABSTRACT: Sex-specific traits that lead to the production of dimorphic gametes, sperm in males and eggs in females, are fundamental for sexual reproduction and accordingly widespread among animals. Yet the sex-biased genes that underlie these sex-specific traits are under strong selective pressure, and as a result of adaptive evolution they often become divergent. Indeed out of hundreds of male or female fertility genes identified in diverse organisms, only a very small number of them are implicated specifically in reproduction in more than one lineage. Few genes have exhibited a sex-biased, reproductive-specific requirement beyond a given phylum, raising the question of whether any sex-specific gametogenesis factors could be conserved and whether gametogenesis might have evolved multiple times. Her

SUBMITTER: Shah C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2904765 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature