Project description:<p>Papaya is a fruit crop possessing XY sex chromosomes. The development of long </p><p>male peduncles (Mp) is pivotal for the evolutionary transition from gynodioecy to </p><p>dioecy. The gene, CpMp, which controls peduncle length, is one of the four genes </p><p>contributing to the evolution of stage 3 sex chromosomes in papaya. We identified a </p><p>Y-specific SVP paralog, CpSVP-Yp, as a candidate gene for CpMp through </p><p>comparative genomic analyses and functional validation by complementation tests. </p><p>CpMp promotes peduncle elongation by directly activating CpYUC6, an auxin </p><p>biosynthesis gene, thereby increasing IAA levels. Elevated IAA in turn enhance GA, </p><p>triggering expression of the GA stimulated gene CpGASA6, which drives cell division </p><p>and elongation. Overexpression CpGASA6 confirmed its role in peduncle growth but </p><p>revealed a feedback inhibition on IAA biosynthesis. Two upstream regulators of </p><p>CpMp were identified, CpTRAB1, a positive regulator repressed by GA, and </p><p>CpGATA8, a negative regulator upregulated by CpMp, forming two feedback loops. </p><p>Notably, male trees produce 400 times more pollen than hermaphrodites, offering a </p><p>clear fitness advantage. In papaya, three genes - two sex determination genes and this </p><p>long male peduncle gene, are essential for the establishment of dioecy and the </p><p>initiation of sex chromosome evolution. These findings fill a major gap in </p><p>understanding papaya sex chromosome evolution and offer valuable genetic resources </p><p>for papaya improvement. </p>
Project description:The evolution of gonochorism from hermaphroditism is linked with the formation of sex chromosomes, as well as the evolution of sex-biased and sex-specific gene expression to allow both sexes to reach their fitness optimum. There is evidence that sexual selection drives the evolution of male-biased gene expression in particular. However, previous research in this area in animals comes from either theoretical models or comparative studies of already old sex chromosomes. We therefore investigated changes in gene expression under three different selection regimes for the simultaneous hermaphrodite Macrostomum lignano subjected to sex-limited experimental evolution (i.e., selection for fitness via eggs, via sperm, or a control regime allowing both). After 21 and 22 generations of selection for male-specific or female-specific fitness, we characterized changes in whole-organism gene expression. We found that female-selected lines had changed the most in their gene expression. Although annotation for this species is limited, GO-term and KEGG pathway analysis suggests that metabolic changes (e.g., biosynthesis of amino acids and carbon metabolism) are an important adaptive component. As predicted, we found that expression of genes previously identified as testis-biased candidates tended to be downregulated in the female-selected lines. We did not find any significant expression differences for previously identified candidates of other sex-specific organs, but this may simply reflect that few transcripts have been characterized in this way. In conclusion, our experiment suggests that changes in testis-biased gene expression are important in the early evolution of sex chromosomes and gonochorism.
Project description:Sex chromosomes evolved from autosomes many times across the eukaryote phylogeny. Several models have been proposed to explain this transition, some involving male and female sterility mutations linked in a region of suppressed recombination between X and Y (or Z/W, U/V) chromosomes. Comparative and experimental analysis of a reference genome assembly for a double haploid YY male garden asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.) individual implicates separate but linked genes as responsible for sex determination. Dioecy has evolved recently within Asparagus and sex chromosomes are cytogenetically identical with the Y, harboring a megabase segment that is missing from the X. We show that deletion of this entire region results in a male-to-female conversion, whereas loss of a single suppressor of female development drives male-to-hermaphrodite conversion. A single copy anther-specific gene with a male sterile Arabidopsis knockout phenotype is also in the Y-specific region, supporting a two-gene model for sex chromosome evolution. Additionally, we test for the presence of Y-specific small RNA loci in several XX, XY, and YY genotypes that may be acting as sex determination loci.
2020-05-02 | GSE149730 | GEO
Project description:Heterogeneous evolution of sex chromosomes in torrent frog genus Amolops
| PRJNA870957 | ENA
Project description:Evolution of sex chromosomes and dosage compensation in monitor lizards