Progressive recombination suppression and differentiation in recently evolved neo-sex chromosomes.

ABSTRACT: Recombination suppression leads to the structural and functional differentiation of sex chromosomes and is thus a crucial step in the process of sex chromosome evolution. Despite extensive theoretical work, the exact processes and mechanisms of recombination suppression and differentiation are not well understood. In threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus), a different sex chromosome system has recently evolved by a fusion between the Y chromosome and an autosome in the Japan Sea lineage, which diverged from the ancestor of other lineages approximately 2 Ma. We investigated the evolutionary dynamics and differentiation processes of sex chromosomes based on comparative analyses of these divergent lineages using 63 microsatellite loci. Both chromosome-wide differentiation patterns a

SUBMITTER: Natri HM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3670740 | biostudies-literature | 2013 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature