Complex evolutionary trajectories of sex chromosomes across bird taxa

Qi Zhou; Jilin Zhang; Doris Bachtrog; Na An; Quanfei Huang; Erich D. Jarvis; M. Thomas P. Gilbert; Guojie Zhang

doi:10.1126/science.1246338

Complex evolutionary trajectories of sex chromosomes across bird taxa

Qi Zhou^*, Jilin Zhang, Doris Bachtrog, Na An, Quanfei Huang, Erich D. Jarvis, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Guojie Zhang

^*Corresponding author for this work

Ecology and Evolution

127 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Sex-specific chromosomes, like the W of most female birds and the Y of male mammals, usually have lost most genes owing to a lack of recombination.We analyze newly available genomes of 17 bird species representing the avian phylogenetic range, and find that more than half of them do not have as fully degenerated W chromosomes as that of chicken. We show that avian sex chromosomes harbor tremendous diversity among species in their composition of pseudoautosomal regions and degree of Z/W differentiation. Punctuated events of shared or lineage-specific recombination suppression have produced a gradient of "evolutionary strata" along the Z chromosome, which initiates from the putative avian sex-determining gene DMRT1 and ends at the pseudoautosomal region.W-linked genes are subject to ongoing functional decay after recombination was suppressed, and the tempo of degeneration slows down in older strata. Overall, we unveil a complex history of avian sex chromosome evolution.

Original language	English
Article number	1246338
Journal	Science
Volume	346
Issue number	6215
Number of pages	8
ISSN	0036-8075
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1246338
Publication status	Published - 2014

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title = "Complex evolutionary trajectories of sex chromosomes across bird taxa",

abstract = "Sex-specific chromosomes, like the W of most female birds and the Y of male mammals, usually have lost most genes owing to a lack of recombination.We analyze newly available genomes of 17 bird species representing the avian phylogenetic range, and find that more than half of them do not have as fully degenerated W chromosomes as that of chicken. We show that avian sex chromosomes harbor tremendous diversity among species in their composition of pseudoautosomal regions and degree of Z/W differentiation. Punctuated events of shared or lineage-specific recombination suppression have produced a gradient of {"}evolutionary strata{"} along the Z chromosome, which initiates from the putative avian sex-determining gene DMRT1 and ends at the pseudoautosomal region.W-linked genes are subject to ongoing functional decay after recombination was suppressed, and the tempo of degeneration slows down in older strata. Overall, we unveil a complex history of avian sex chromosome evolution.",

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T1 - Complex evolutionary trajectories of sex chromosomes across bird taxa

AU - Zhou, Qi

AU - Zhang, Jilin

AU - Bachtrog, Doris

AU - An, Na

AU - Huang, Quanfei

AU - Jarvis, Erich D.

AU - Gilbert, M. Thomas P.

AU - Zhang, Guojie

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - Sex-specific chromosomes, like the W of most female birds and the Y of male mammals, usually have lost most genes owing to a lack of recombination.We analyze newly available genomes of 17 bird species representing the avian phylogenetic range, and find that more than half of them do not have as fully degenerated W chromosomes as that of chicken. We show that avian sex chromosomes harbor tremendous diversity among species in their composition of pseudoautosomal regions and degree of Z/W differentiation. Punctuated events of shared or lineage-specific recombination suppression have produced a gradient of "evolutionary strata" along the Z chromosome, which initiates from the putative avian sex-determining gene DMRT1 and ends at the pseudoautosomal region.W-linked genes are subject to ongoing functional decay after recombination was suppressed, and the tempo of degeneration slows down in older strata. Overall, we unveil a complex history of avian sex chromosome evolution.

AB - Sex-specific chromosomes, like the W of most female birds and the Y of male mammals, usually have lost most genes owing to a lack of recombination.We analyze newly available genomes of 17 bird species representing the avian phylogenetic range, and find that more than half of them do not have as fully degenerated W chromosomes as that of chicken. We show that avian sex chromosomes harbor tremendous diversity among species in their composition of pseudoautosomal regions and degree of Z/W differentiation. Punctuated events of shared or lineage-specific recombination suppression have produced a gradient of "evolutionary strata" along the Z chromosome, which initiates from the putative avian sex-determining gene DMRT1 and ends at the pseudoautosomal region.W-linked genes are subject to ongoing functional decay after recombination was suppressed, and the tempo of degeneration slows down in older strata. Overall, we unveil a complex history of avian sex chromosome evolution.

U2 - 10.1126/science.1246338

DO - 10.1126/science.1246338

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SN - 0036-8075

VL - 346

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Complex evolutionary trajectories of sex chromosomes across bird taxa

Abstract

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