The unusual rainbow trout sex determination gene hijacked the canonical vertebrate gonadal differentiation pathway.

ABSTRACT: Evolutionary novelties require rewiring of transcriptional networks and/or the evolution of new gene functions. Sex determination (SD), one of the most plastic evolutionary processes, requires such novelties. Studies on the evolution of vertebrate SD revealed that new master SD genes are generally recruited from genes involved in the downstream SD regulatory genetic network. Only a single exception to this rule is currently known in vertebrates: the intriguing case of the salmonid master SD gene (sdY), which arose from duplication of an immune-related gene. This exception immediately posed the question of how a gene outside from the classical sex differentiation cascade could acquire its function as a male SD gene. Here we show that SdY became integrated in the classical vertebrate

SUBMITTER: Bertho S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6294932 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature