Transcriptomic thermal plasticity underlying gonadal development in a turtle with ZZ/ZW sex chromosomes despite canalized genotypic sex determination.

ABSTRACT: Understanding genome-wide responses to environmental conditions during embryogenesis is essential for discerning the evolution of developmental plasticity and canalization, two processes generating phenotypic variation targeted by natural selection. Here, we present the first comparative trajectory analysis of matched transcriptomic developmental time series from two reptiles incubated under identical conditions, a turtle with a ZZ/ZW system of genotypic sex determination (GSD), Apalone spinifera, and a turtle with temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD), Chrysemys picta. Results from our genome-wide, hypervariate gene expression analysis of sexed embryos across five developmental stages revealed that substantial transcriptional plasticity in the developing gonads can p

SUBMITTER: Gessler TB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9951354 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature