Insights into Avian Incomplete Dosage Compensation: Sex-Biased Gene Expression Coevolves with Sex Chromosome Degeneration in the Common Whitethroat.

ABSTRACT: Non-recombining sex chromosomes (Y and W) accumulate deleterious mutations and degenerate. This poses a problem for the heterogametic sex (XY males; ZW females) because a single functional gene copy often implies less gene expression and a potential imbalance of crucial expression networks. Mammals counteract this by dosage compensation, resulting in equal sex chromosome expression in males and females, whereas birds show incomplete dosage compensation with significantly lower expression in females (ZW). Here, we study the evolution of Z and W sequence divergence and sex-specific gene expression in the common whitethroat (Sylvia communis), a species within the Sylvioidea clade where a neo-sex chromosome has been formed by a fusion between an autosome and the ancestral sex chromosome

SUBMITTER: Sigeman H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6116046 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature