XY sex determination in a cnidarian.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Sex determination occurs across animal species, but most of our knowledge about its mechanisms comes from only a handful of bilaterian taxa. This limits our ability to infer the evolutionary history of sex determination within animals.

Results

In this study, we generated a linkage map of the genome of the colonial cnidarian Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus and used it to demonstrate that this species has an XX/XY sex determination system. We demonstrate that the X and Y chromosomes have pseudoautosomal and non-recombining regions. We then use the linkage map and a method based on the depth of sequencing coverage to identify genes encoded in the non-recombining region and show that many of them have male gonad-specific expression. In addition, we demonstrate that reco

SUBMITTER: Chen R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9926710 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature