An annual cycle of gene regulation in the red-legged salamander mental gland: from hypertrophy to expression of rapidly evolving pheromones.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Cell differentiation is mediated by synchronized waves of coordinated expression for hundreds to thousands of genes, and must be regulated to produce complex tissues and phenotypes. For many animal species, sexual selection has driven the development of elaborate male ornaments, requiring sex-specific differentiation pathways. One such male ornament is the pheromone-producing mental gland of the red-legged salamander (Plethodon shermani). Mental gland development follows an annual cycle of extreme hypertrophy, production of pheromones for the ~ 2 month mating season, and then complete resorption before repeating the process in the following year. At the peak of the mating season, the transcriptional and translational machinery of the mental gland are almost exclusively r

SUBMITTER: Wilburn DB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6487043 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature