A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Spatial Dynamics of Evolving Dosage Compensation in a Young Sex Chromosome System




AuthorsRoland Schultheiß, Heidi M. Viitaniemi, Erica H. Leder

PublisherOXFORD UNIV PRESS

Publication year2015

JournalGenome Biology and Evolution

Journal name in sourceGENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION

Journal acronymGENOME BIOL EVOL

Volume7

Issue2

First page 581

Last page590

Number of pages10

ISSN1759-6653

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evv013(external)


Abstract

The loss of Y-linked genes during sex chromosome evolution creates a potentially deleterious low gene dosage in males. Recent studies have reported different strategies of dosage compensation. Unfortunately, most of these studies investigated taxa with comparatively old sex chromosome systems, which may limit insights into the evolution of dosage compensation and thus into the causes of different compensation strategies. Using deep RNA sequencing, we investigate differential expression patterns along the young XY chromosomes of threespine sticklebacks. Our strata-specific analyses provide new insights into the spatial patterns during the early stages of the evolution of dosage compensation. In particular, our results indicate systematic upregulation of male gene expression in stratum II, which in turn causes female hypertranscription in the same stratum. These findings are consistent with theoretical predictions that selection during early stages of sex chromosome evolution is stronger for a compensating upregulation in males than for the countercompensation of female hyperexpression. In contrast, no elevated gene expression is detectable in stratum I. We argue that strata-specific differences in compensating male gene expression may evolve in response to differences in the prevailing mechanism of Y chromosome degeneration.




Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 23:39