Evolutionary analysis of the female-specific avian W chromosome.

ABSTRACT: The typically repetitive nature of the sex-limited chromosome means that it is often excluded from or poorly covered in genome assemblies, hindering studies of evolutionary and population genomic processes in non-recombining chromosomes. Here, we present a draft assembly of the non-recombining region of the collared flycatcher W chromosome, containing 46 genes without evidence of female-specific functional differentiation. Survival of genes during W chromosome degeneration has been highly non-random and expression data suggest that this can be attributed to selection for maintaining gene dose and ancestral expression levels of essential genes. Re-sequencing of large population samples revealed dramatically reduced levels of within-species diversity and elevated rates of between-species dif

SUBMITTER: Smeds L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4468903 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature