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National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

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Publication Detail

Title: The rise and fall of the ancient northern pike master sex-determining gene.

Authors: Pan, Qiaowei; Feron, Romain; Jouanno, Elodie; Darras, Hugo; Herpin, Amaury; Koop, Ben; Rondeau, Eric; Goetz, Frederick W; Larson, Wesley A; Bernatchez, Louis; Tringali, Mike; Curran, Stephen S; Saillant, Eric; Denys, Gael Pj; von Hippel, Frank A; Chen, Songlin; López, J Andrés; Verreycken, Hugo; Ocalewicz, Konrad; Guyomard, Rene; Eche, Camille; Lluch, Jerome; Roques, Celine; Hu, Hongxia; Tabor, Roger; DeHaan, Patrick; Nichols, Krista M; Journot, Laurent; Parrinello, Hugues; Klopp, Christophe; Interesova, Elena A; Trifonov, Vladimir; Schartl, Manfred; Postlethwait, John; Guiguen, Yann

Published In Elife, (2021 Jan 28)

Abstract: The understanding of the evolution of variable sex determination mechanisms across taxa requires comparative studies among closely related species. Following the fate of a known master sex-determining gene, we traced the evolution of sex determination in an entire teleost order (Esociformes). We discovered that the northern pike (Esox lucius) master sex-determining gene originated from a 65 to 90 million-year-old gene duplication event and that it remained sex linked on undifferentiated sex chromosomes for at least 56 million years in multiple species. We identified several independent species- or population-specific sex determination transitions, including a recent loss of a Y chromosome. These findings highlight the diversity of evolutionary fates of master sex-determining genes and the importance of population demographic history in sex determination studies. We hypothesize that occasional sex reversals and genetic bottlenecks provide a non-adaptive explanation for sex determination transitions.

PubMed ID: 33506762 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: No MeSH terms associated with this publication

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