Incomplete sex chromosome dosage compensation in the Indian meal moth, Plodia interpunctella, based on de novo transcriptome assembly

Fighting a losing battle: vigorous immune response countered by pathogen suppression of host defenses in the chytridiomycosis-susceptible frog Atelopus zeteki

The emergence of the disease chytridiomycosis caused by the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) has been implicated in dramatic global amphibian declines. Although many species have undergone catastrophic declines and/or extinctions, others appear to be unaffected or persist at reduced frequencies after Bd outbreaks. The reasons behind this variance in disease outcomes are poorly understood: differences in host immune responses have been proposed, yet previous studies suggest a lack of robust immune responses to Bd in susceptible species. Here, we sequenced transcriptomes from clutch-mates of a highly susceptible amphibian, Atelopus zeteki, with different infection histories. We found significant changes in expression of numerous genes involved in innate and inflammatory responses in infected frogs despite high susceptibility to chytridiomycosis. We show evidence of acquired immune responses generated against Bd, including increased expression of immunoglobulins and major histocompatibility complex genes. In addition, fungal-killing genes had significantly greater expression in frogs previously exposed to Bd compared with Bd-naïve frogs, including chitinase and serine-type proteases. However, our results appear to confirm recent in vitro evidence of immune suppression by Bd, demonstrated by decreased expression of lymphocyte genes in the spleen of infected compared with control frogs. We propose susceptibility to chytridiomycosis is not due to lack of Bd-specific immune responses but instead is caused by failure of those responses to be effective. Ineffective immune pathway activation and timing of antibody production are discussed as potential mechanisms. However, in light of our findings, suppression of key immune responses by Bd is likely an important factor in the lethality of this fungus.

X chromosome regulation of autosomal gene expression in bovine blastocysts

Although X chromosome inactivation in female mammals evolved to balance the expression of X chromosome and autosomal genes in the two sexes, female embryos pass through developmental stages in which both X chromosomes are active in somatic cells. Bovine blastocysts show higher expression of many X genes in XX than XY embryos, suggesting that X inactivation is not complete. Here, we reanalyzed bovine blastocyst microarray expression data from a network perspective with a focus on interactions between X chromosome and autosomal genes. Whereas male-to-female ratios of expression of autosomal genes were distributed around a mean of 1, X chromosome genes were clearly shifted towards higher expression in females. We generated gene coexpression networks and identified a major module of genes with correlated gene expression that includes female-biased X genes and sexually dimorphic autosomal genes for which the sexual dimorphism is likely driven by the X genes. In this module, expression of X chromosome genes correlates with autosome genes, more than the expression of autosomal genes with each other. Our study identifies correlated patterns of autosomal and X-linked genes that are likely influenced by the sexual imbalance of X gene expression when X inactivation is inefficient.

Anolis sex chromosomes are derived from a single ancestral pair

To explain the frequency and distribution of heteromorphic sex chromosomes in the lizard genus Anolis, we compared the relative roles of sex chromosome conservation versus turnover of sex-determining mechanisms. We used model-based comparative methods to reconstruct karyotype evolution and the presence of heteromorphic sex chromosomes onto a newly generated Anolis phylogeny. We found that heteromorphic sex chromosomes evolved multiple times in the genus. Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) of repetitive DNA showed variable rates of Y chromosome degeneration among Anolis species and identified previously undetected, homomorphic sex chromosomes in two species. We confirmed homology of sex chromosomes in the genus by performing FISH of an X-linked bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) and quantitative PCR of X-linked genes in multiple Anolis species sampled across the phylogeny. Taken together, these results are consistent with long-term conservation of sex chromosomes in the group. Our results pave the way to address additional questions related to Anolis sex chromosome evolution and describe a conceptual framework that can be used to evaluate the origins and evolution of heteromorphic sex chromosomes in other clades.

The ontogeny and evolution of sex-biased gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster

Sexually dimorphic phenotypes are thought to largely result from sex differences in gene expression, and genes with sex-biased expression have been well characterized in adults of many species. Although most sexual dimorphisms manifest in adults, many result from sex-specific developmental trajectories, implying that juveniles may exhibit significant levels of sex-biased expression. However, it is unclear how much sex-biased expression occurs before reproductive maturity and whether preadult sex-biased genes should exhibit the same evolutionary dynamics observed for adult sex-biased genes. In order to understand the continuity, or lack thereof, and evolutionary dynamics of sex-biased expression throughout the life cycle, we examined sex-biased genes in pre-gonad tissue of two preadult stages and compared them with the adult gonad of Drosophila melanogaster. We found that the majority of the genome is sex-biased at some point in the life cycle, with some genes exhibiting conserved sex-biased expression and others displaying stage-specific sex bias. Our results also reveal a far more complex pattern of evolution for sex-biased genes throughout development. The most rapid evolutionary divergence occurred in genes expressed only in larvae within each sex, compared with continuously expressed genes. In females—but not males—this pattern appeared to be due to relaxed purifying selection in larva-limited genes. Furthermore, genes that retained male bias throughout life evolved more rapidly than stage-specific male-biased genes, due to stronger purifying selection in stage-specific genes. However, female-biased genes that were specific to larvae evolved most rapidly, a pattern that could not be definitively attributed to differences in adaptive evolution or purifying selection, suggesting that pleiotropic constraints on protein-coding sequences can arise when genes are broadly expressed across developmental stages. These results indicate that the signature of sex-specific selection can be detected well before reproductive maturity and is strongest during development.

Transcriptome sequencing reveals the character of incomplete dosage compensation across multiple tissues in flycatchers

Sex chromosome divergence, which follows the cessation of recombination and degeneration of the sex-limited chromosome, can cause a reduction in expression level for sex-linked genes in the heterozygous sex, unless some mechanisms of dosage compensation develops to counter the reduction in gene dose. Because large-scale perturbations in expression levels arising from changes in gene dose might have strong deleterious effects, the evolutionary response should be strong. However, in birds and in at least some other female heterogametic organisms, wholesale sex chromosome dosage compensation does not seem to occur. Using RNA-seq of multiple tissues and individuals, we investigated male and female expression levels of Z-linked and autosomal genes in the collared flycatcher, a bird for which a draft genome sequence recently has been reported. We found that male expression of Z-linked genes was on average 50% higher than female expression, although there was considerable variation in the male-to-female ratio among genes. The ratio for individual genes was well correlated among tissues and there was also a correlation in the extent of compensation between flycatcher and chicken orthologs. The relative excess of male expression was positively correlated with expression breadth, expression level, and number of interacting proteins (protein connectivity), and negatively correlated with variance in expression. These observations lead to a model of compensation occurring on a gene-by-gene basis, supported by an absence of clustering of genes on the Z chromosome with respect to the extent of compensation. Equal mean expression level of autosomal and Z-linked genes in males, and 50% higher expression of autosomal than Z-linked genes in females, is compatible with that partial compensation is achieved by hypertranscription from females' single Z chromosome. A comparison with male-to-female expression ratios in orthologous Z-linked genes of ostriches, where Z-W recombination still occurs, suggests that male-biased expression of Z-linked genes is a derived trait after avian sex chromosome divergence.

Comparative sex chromosome genomics in snakes: differentiation, evolutionary strata, and lack of global dosage compensation

Snakes exhibit genetic sex determination, with female heterogametic sex chromosomes (ZZ males, ZW females). Extensive cytogenetic work has suggested that the level of sex chromosome heteromorphism varies among species, with Boidae having entirely homomorphic sex chromosomes, Viperidae having completely heteromorphic sex chromosomes, and Colubridae showing partial differentiation. Here, we take a genomic approach to compare sex chromosome differentiation in these three snake families. We identify homomorphic sex chromosomes in boas (Boidae), but completely heteromorphic sex chromosomes in both garter snakes (Colubridae) and pygmy rattlesnake (Viperidae). Detection of W-linked gametologs enables us to establish the presence of evolutionary strata on garter and pygmy rattlesnake sex chromosomes where recombination was abolished at different time points. Sequence analysis shows that all strata are shared between pygmy rattlesnake and garter snake, i.e., recombination was abolished between the sex chromosomes before the two lineages diverged. The sex-biased transmission of the Z and its hemizygosity in females can impact patterns of molecular evolution, and we show that rates of evolution for Z-linked genes are increased relative to their pseudoautosomal homologs, both at synonymous and amino acid sites (even after controlling for mutational biases). This demonstrates that mutation rates are male-biased in snakes (male-driven evolution), but also supports faster-Z evolution due to differential selective effects on the Z. Finally, we perform a transcriptome analysis in boa and pygmy rattlesnake to establish baseline levels of sex-biased expression in homomorphic sex chromosomes, and show that heteromorphic ZW chromosomes in rattlesnakes lack chromosome-wide dosage compensation. Our study provides the first full scale overview of the evolution of snake sex chromosomes at the genomic level, thus greatly expanding our knowledge of reptilian and vertebrate sex chromosomes evolution.

Masculinization of gene expression is associated with exaggeration of male sexual dimorphism

Gene expression differences between the sexes account for the majority of sexually dimorphic phenotypes, and the study of sex-biased gene expression is important for understanding the genetic basis of complex sexual dimorphisms. However, it has been difficult to test the nature of this relationship due to the fact that sexual dimorphism has traditionally been conceptualized as a dichotomy between males and females, rather than an axis with individuals distributed at intermediate points. The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) exhibits just this sort of continuum, with dominant and subordinate males forming a gradient in male secondary sexual characteristics. This makes it possible for the first time to test the correlation between sex-biased gene expression and sexually dimorphic phenotypes, a relationship crucial to molecular studies of sexual selection and sexual conflict. Here, we show that subordinate male transcriptomes show striking multiple concordances with their relative phenotypic sexual dimorphism. Subordinate males were clearly male rather than intersex, and when compared to dominant males, their transcriptomes were simultaneously demasculinized for male-biased genes and feminized for female-biased genes across the majority of the transcriptome. These results provide the first evidence linking sexually dimorphic transcription and sexually dimorphic phenotypes. More importantly, they indicate that evolutionary changes in sexual dimorphism can be achieved by varying the magnitude of sex-bias in expression across a large proportion of the coding content of a genome.

Males and females exhibit many differences in morphology, behavior and physiology, yet they share the vast majority of their genomes. Most differences between the sexes are therefore thought to be the product of gene expression differences between females and males. Studies of sex differences in expression assume that genes expressed more in males encode male traits, and genes expressed more in females encode female traits, and this assumption is a key foundation to genetic studies of sexual dimorphism and sexual conflict. Despite this key assumption, this relationship has yet to be empirically tested, as the main model organisms for studies of sex-biased gene expression lack multiple male and female morphs. Here, we use the two male morphs in the wild turkey to show that the magnitude of male-biased gene expression correlates with the manifestation of sexually dimorphic traits. Males with less manifestation of sexual dimorphism in phenotype were both demasculinized for male-biased genes, as well as feminized for female-biased genes. This pattern encompassed the majority of expressed loci, suggesting that evolutionary changes in the magnitude of sexual dimorphism may be achieved by small changes in the magnitude of sex-biased transcription across thousands of genes.

Neo-sex chromosomes and adaptive potential in tortricid pests

Changes in genome architecture often have a significant effect on ecological specialization and speciation. This effect may be further enhanced by involvement of sex chromosomes playing a disproportionate role in reproductive isolation. We have physically mapped the Z chromosome of the major pome fruit pest, the codling moth, Cydia pomonella (Tortricidae), and show that it arose by fusion between an ancestral Z chromosome and an autosome corresponding to chromosome 15 in the Bombyx mori reference genome. We further show that the fusion originated in a common ancestor of the main tortricid subfamilies, Olethreutinae and Tortricinae, comprising almost 700 pest species worldwide. The Z-autosome fusion brought two major genes conferring insecticide resistance and clusters of genes involved in detoxification of plant secondary metabolites under sex-linked inheritance. We suggest that this fusion significantly increased the adaptive potential of tortricid moths and thus contributed to their radiation and subsequent speciation.