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Schistosome W-linked genes inform temporal dynamics of sex chromosome evolution and suggest candidate for sex determination
- Source :
- Molecular Biology and Evolution, Molecular Biology and Evolution, Oxford University Press (OUP), 2021, ⟨10.1093/molbev/msab178⟩
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- HAL CCSD, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Schistosomes, the human parasites responsible for snail fever, are female-heterogametic. Different parts of their ZW sex chromosomes have stopped recombining in distinct lineages, creating “evolutionary strata” of various ages. Although the Z-chromosome is well characterized at the genomic and molecular level, the W-chromosome has remained largely unstudied from an evolutionary perspective, as only a few W-linked genes have been detected outside of the model species Schistosoma mansoni. Here, we characterize the gene content and evolution of the W-chromosomes of S. mansoni and of the divergent species S. japonicum. We use a combined RNA/DNA k-mer based pipeline to assemble around 100 candidate W-specific transcripts in each of the species. About half of them map to known protein coding genes, the majority homologous to S. mansoni Z-linked genes. We perform an extended analysis of the evolutionary strata present in the two species (including characterizing a previously undetected young stratum in S. japonicum) to infer patterns of sequence and expression evolution of W-linked genes at different time points after recombination was lost. W-linked genes show evidence of degeneration, including high rates of protein evolution and reduced expression. Most are found in young lineage-specific strata, with only a few high expression ancestral W-genes remaining, consistent with the progressive erosion of nonrecombining regions. Among these, the splicing factor u2af2 stands out as a promising candidate for primary sex determination, opening new avenues for understanding the molecular basis of the reproductive biology of this group. Keywords: sex chromosomes, evolutionary strata, W-linked gene, sex determining gene, schistosome parasites.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
[SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio]
AcademicSubjects/SCI01180
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Evolution, Molecular
03 medical and health sciences
Splicing factor
Genetic linkage
Genetics
Homologous chromosome
Animals
Humans
Molecular Biology
Gene
Discoveries
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
030304 developmental biology
U2AF2
0303 health sciences
Genome
Sex Chromosomes
biology
AcademicSubjects/SCI01130
Chromosome
Genomics
biology.organism_classification
Evolutionary biology
Primary sex determination
Schistosoma
Female
Schistosoma mansoni
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 07374038 and 15371719
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Molecular Biology and Evolution, Molecular Biology and Evolution, Oxford University Press (OUP), 2021, ⟨10.1093/molbev/msab178⟩
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....3f97ac949981720cc1a13579afa0c19c