1
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Cecalev D, Viçoso B, Galupa R. Compensation of gene dosage on the mammalian X. Development 2024; 151:dev202891. [PMID: 39140247 PMCID: PMC11361640 DOI: 10.1242/dev.202891] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/15/2024]
Abstract
Changes in gene dosage can have tremendous evolutionary potential (e.g. whole-genome duplications), but without compensatory mechanisms, they can also lead to gene dysregulation and pathologies. Sex chromosomes are a paradigmatic example of naturally occurring gene dosage differences and their compensation. In species with chromosome-based sex determination, individuals within the same population necessarily show 'natural' differences in gene dosage for the sex chromosomes. In this Review, we focus on the mammalian X chromosome and discuss recent new insights into the dosage-compensation mechanisms that evolved along with the emergence of sex chromosomes, namely X-inactivation and X-upregulation. We also discuss the evolution of the genetic loci and molecular players involved, as well as the regulatory diversity and potentially different requirements for dosage compensation across mammalian species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniela Cecalev
- Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (MCD) Unit, Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), University of Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, 31062, Toulouse, France
| | - Beatriz Viçoso
- Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), Am Campus 1, Klosterneuburg 3400, Austria
| | - Rafael Galupa
- Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (MCD) Unit, Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), University of Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, 31062, Toulouse, France
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2
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VanKuren NW, Chen J, Long M. Sexual conflict drive in the rapid evolution of new gametogenesis genes. Semin Cell Dev Biol 2024; 159-160:27-37. [PMID: 38309142 DOI: 10.1016/j.semcdb.2024.01.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2023] [Revised: 01/19/2024] [Accepted: 01/19/2024] [Indexed: 02/05/2024]
Abstract
The evolutionary forces underlying the rapid evolution in sequences and functions of new genes remain a mystery. Adaptation by natural selection explains the evolution of some new genes. However, many new genes perform sex-biased functions that have rapidly evolved over short evolutionary time scales, suggesting that new gene evolution may often be driven by conflicting selective pressures on males and females. It is well established that such sexual conflict (SC) plays a central role in maintaining phenotypic and genetic variation within populations, but the role of SC in driving new gene evolution remains essentially unknown. This review explores the connections between SC and new gene evolution through discussions of the concept of SC, the phenotypic and genetic signatures of SC in evolving populations, and the molecular mechanisms by which SC could drive the evolution of new genes. We synthesize recent work in this area with a discussion of the case of Apollo and Artemis, two extremely young genes (<200,000 years) in Drosophila melanogaster, which offered the first empirical insights into the evolutionary process by which SC could drive the evolution of new genes. These new duplicate genes exhibit the hallmarks of sexually antagonistic selection: rapid DNA and protein sequence evolution, essential sex-specific functions in gametogenesis, and complementary sex-biased expression patterns. Importantly, Apollo is essential for male fitness but detrimental to female fitness, while Artemis is essential for female fitness but detrimental to male fitness. These sexually antagonistic fitness effects and complementary changes to expression, sequence, and function suggest that these duplicates were selected for mitigating SC, but that SC has not been fully resolved. Finally, we propose Sexual Conflict Drive as a self-driven model to interpret the rapid evolution of new genes, explain the potential for SC and sexually antagonistic selection to contribute to long-term evolution, and suggest its utility for understanding the rapid evolution of new genes in gametogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas W VanKuren
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, The University of Chicago, United States.
| | - Jianhai Chen
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, The University of Chicago, United States
| | - Manyuan Long
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, The University of Chicago, United States.
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3
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Radrizzani S, Kudla G, Izsvák Z, Hurst LD. Selection on synonymous sites: the unwanted transcript hypothesis. Nat Rev Genet 2024; 25:431-448. [PMID: 38297070 DOI: 10.1038/s41576-023-00686-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/04/2023] [Indexed: 02/02/2024]
Abstract
Although translational selection to favour codons that match the most abundant tRNAs is not readily observed in humans, there is nonetheless selection in humans on synonymous mutations. We hypothesize that much of this synonymous site selection can be explained in terms of protection against unwanted RNAs - spurious transcripts, mis-spliced forms or RNAs derived from transposable elements or viruses. We propose not only that selection on synonymous sites functions to reduce the rate of creation of unwanted transcripts (for example, through selection on exonic splice enhancers and cryptic splice sites) but also that high-GC content (but low-CpG content), together with intron presence and position, is both particular to functional native mRNAs and used to recognize transcripts as native. In support of this hypothesis, transcription, nuclear export, liquid phase condensation and RNA degradation have all recently been shown to promote GC-rich transcripts and suppress AU/CpG-rich ones. With such 'traps' being set against AU/CpG-rich transcripts, the codon usage of native genes has, in turn, evolved to avoid such suppression. That parallel filters against AU/CpG-rich transcripts also affect the endosomal import of RNAs further supports the unwanted transcript hypothesis of synonymous site selection and explains the similar design rules that have enabled the successful use of transgenes and RNA vaccines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sofia Radrizzani
- Milner Centre for Evolution, Department of Life Sciences, University of Bath, Bath, UK
- Milner Therapeutics Institute, Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Grzegorz Kudla
- MRC Human Genetics Unit, Institute for Genetics and Cancer, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Zsuzsanna Izsvák
- Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Society, Berlin, Germany
| | - Laurence D Hurst
- Milner Centre for Evolution, Department of Life Sciences, University of Bath, Bath, UK.
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4
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Castellanos MDP, Wickramasinghe CD, Betrán E. The roles of gene duplications in the dynamics of evolutionary conflicts. Proc Biol Sci 2024; 291:20240555. [PMID: 38865605 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2024.0555] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2023] [Accepted: 04/02/2024] [Indexed: 06/14/2024] Open
Abstract
Evolutionary conflicts occur when there is antagonistic selection between different individuals of the same or different species, life stages or between levels of biological organization. Remarkably, conflicts can occur within species or within genomes. In the dynamics of evolutionary conflicts, gene duplications can play a major role because they can bring very specific changes to the genome: changes in protein dose, the generation of novel paralogues with different functions or expression patterns or the evolution of small antisense RNAs. As we describe here, by having those effects, gene duplication might spark evolutionary conflict or fuel arms race dynamics that takes place during conflicts. Interestingly, gene duplication can also contribute to the resolution of a within-locus evolutionary conflict by partitioning the functions of the gene that is under an evolutionary trade-off. In this review, we focus on intraspecific conflicts, including sexual conflict and illustrate the various roles of gene duplications with a compilation of examples. These examples reveal the level of complexity and the differences in the patterns of gene duplications within genomes under different conflicts. These examples also reveal the gene ontologies involved in conflict and the genomic location of the elements of the conflict. The examples provide a blueprint for the direct study of these conflicts or the exploration of the presence of similar conflicts in other lineages.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Esther Betrán
- Department of Biology, University of Texas at Arlington , Arlington, TX 76019, USA
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5
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Chakraborty M, Lara AG, Dang A, McCulloch KJ, Rainbow D, Carter D, Ngo LT, Solares E, Said I, Corbett-Detig RB, Gilbert LE, Emerson JJ, Briscoe AD. Sex-linked gene traffic underlies the acquisition of sexually dimorphic UV color vision in Heliconius butterflies. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2301411120. [PMID: 37552755 PMCID: PMC10438391 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2301411120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2023] [Accepted: 06/16/2023] [Indexed: 08/10/2023] Open
Abstract
The acquisition of novel sexually dimorphic traits poses an evolutionary puzzle: How do new traits arise and become sex-limited? Recently acquired color vision, sexually dimorphic in animals like primates and butterflies, presents a compelling model for understanding how traits become sex-biased. For example, some Heliconius butterflies uniquely possess UV (ultraviolet) color vision, which correlates with the expression of two differentially tuned UV-sensitive rhodopsins, UVRh1 and UVRh2. To discover how such traits become sexually dimorphic, we studied Heliconius charithonia, which exhibits female-specific UVRh1 expression. We demonstrate that females, but not males, discriminate different UV wavelengths. Through whole-genome shotgun sequencing and assembly of the H. charithonia genome, we discovered that UVRh1 is present on the W chromosome, making it obligately female-specific. By knocking out UVRh1, we show that UVRh1 protein expression is absent in mutant female eye tissue, as in wild-type male eyes. A PCR survey of UVRh1 sex-linkage across the genus shows that species with female-specific UVRh1 expression lack UVRh1 gDNA in males. Thus, acquisition of sex linkage is sufficient to achieve female-specific expression of UVRh1, though this does not preclude other mechanisms, like cis-regulatory evolution from also contributing. Moreover, both this event, and mutations leading to differential UV opsin sensitivity, occurred early in the history of Heliconius. These results suggest a path for acquiring sexual dimorphism distinct from existing mechanistic models. We propose a model where gene traffic to heterosomes (the W or the Y) genetically partitions a trait by sex before a phenotype shifts (spectral tuning of UV sensitivity).
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Affiliation(s)
- Mahul Chakraborty
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA92697
- Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX77843
| | | | - Andrew Dang
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA92697
| | - Kyle J. McCulloch
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA92697
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN55108
| | - Dylan Rainbow
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA92697
| | - David Carter
- Department of Molecular, Cell and Systems Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA92521
| | - Luna Thanh Ngo
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA92697
| | - Edwin Solares
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA92697
| | - Iskander Said
- Department of Biomolecular Engineering and Genomics Institute, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA95064
| | - Russell B. Corbett-Detig
- Department of Biomolecular Engineering and Genomics Institute, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA95064
| | | | - J. J. Emerson
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA92697
| | - Adriana D. Briscoe
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA92697
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6
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Xing Z, Zhang Y, Tian Z, Wang M, Xiao W, Zhu C, Zhao S, Zhu Y, Hu L, Kong X. Escaping but not the inactive X-linked protein complex coding genes may achieve X-chromosome dosage compensation and underlie X chromosome inactivation-related diseases. Heliyon 2023; 9:e17721. [PMID: 37449161 PMCID: PMC10336589 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17721] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2022] [Revised: 06/05/2023] [Accepted: 06/26/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023] Open
Abstract
X chromosome dosage compensation (XDC) refers to the process by which X-linked genes acquire expression equivalence between two sexes. Ohno proposed that XDC is achieved by two-fold upregulations of X-linked genes in both sexes and by silencing one X chromosome (X chromosome inactivation, XCI) in females. However, genes subject to two-fold upregulations as well as the underlying mechanism remain unclear. It's reported that gene dosage changes may only affect X-linked dosage-sensitive genes, such as protein complex coding genes (PCGs). Our results showed that in human PCGs are more likely to escape XCI and escaping PCGs (EsP) show two-fold higher expression than inactivated PCGs (InP) or other X-linked genes at RNA and protein levels in both sexes, which suggest that EsP may achieve upregulations and XDC. The higher expressions of EsP possibly result from the upregulations of the single active X chromosome (Xa), rather than escaping expressions from the inactive X chromosome (Xi). EsP genes have relatively high expression levels in humans and lower dN/dS ratios, suggesting that they are likely under stronger selection pressure over evolutionary time. Our study also suggests that SP1 transcription factor is significantly enriched in EsP and may be involved in the up-regulations of EsP on the active X. Finally, human EsP genes in this study are enriched in the toll-like receptor pathway, NF-kB pathway, apoptotic pathway, and abnormal mental, developmental and reproductive phenotypes. These findings suggest misregulations of EsP may be involved in autoimmune, reproductive, and neurological diseases, providing insight for the diagnosis and treatment of these diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhihao Xing
- Clinical Laboratory, Institute of Pediatrics, Shenzhen Children’s' Hospital, Shenzhen, China
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tissue Microenvironment and Tumor, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
| | - Yuchao Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tissue Microenvironment and Tumor, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
| | - Zhongyuan Tian
- Zhoukou Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Zhoukou, Henan, China
| | - Meng Wang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tissue Microenvironment and Tumor, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
| | - Weiwei Xiao
- Clinical Laboratory, Institute of Pediatrics, Shenzhen Children’s' Hospital, Shenzhen, China
| | - Chunqing Zhu
- Clinical Laboratory, Institute of Pediatrics, Shenzhen Children’s' Hospital, Shenzhen, China
| | - Songhui Zhao
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tissue Microenvironment and Tumor, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
| | - Yufei Zhu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tissue Microenvironment and Tumor, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
| | - Landian Hu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tissue Microenvironment and Tumor, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
| | - Xiangyin Kong
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tissue Microenvironment and Tumor, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
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7
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Otsuka K, Sakashita A, Maezawa S, Schultz RM, Namekawa SH. KRAB-zinc-finger proteins regulate endogenous retroviruses to sculpt germline transcriptomes and genome evolution. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.06.24.546405. [PMID: 37720031 PMCID: PMC10503828 DOI: 10.1101/2023.06.24.546405] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/19/2023]
Abstract
As transposable elements (TEs) coevolved with the host genome, the host genome exploited TEs as functional regulatory elements. What remains largely unknown are how the activity of TEs, namely, endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), are regulated and how TEs evolved in the germline. Here we show that KRAB domain-containing zinc-finger proteins (KZFPs), which are highly expressed in mitotically dividing spermatogonia, bind to suppressed ERVs that function following entry into meiosis as active enhancers. These features are observed for independently evolved KZFPs and ERVs in mice and humans, i.e., are evolutionarily conserved in mammals. Further, we show that meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI) antagonizes the coevolution of KZFPs and ERVs in mammals. Our study uncovers a mechanism by which KZFPs regulate ERVs to sculpt germline transcriptomes. We propose that epigenetic programming in the mammalian germline during the mitosis-to-meiosis transition facilitates coevolution of KZFPs and TEs on autosomes and is antagonized by MSCI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kai Otsuka
- Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California, Davis, California, 95616, USA
| | - Akihiko Sakashita
- Reproductive Sciences Center, Division of Developmental Biology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45229, USA
- Department of Molecular Biology, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, 160-8582, Japan
| | - So Maezawa
- Department of Applied Biological Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, Noda, Chiba, 278-8510, Japan
| | - Richard M. Schultz
- Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104 USA
- Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Cell Biology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA
| | - Satoshi H. Namekawa
- Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California, Davis, California, 95616, USA
- Reproductive Sciences Center, Division of Developmental Biology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45229, USA
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8
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Murat F, Mbengue N, Winge SB, Trefzer T, Leushkin E, Sepp M, Cardoso-Moreira M, Schmidt J, Schneider C, Mößinger K, Brüning T, Lamanna F, Belles MR, Conrad C, Kondova I, Bontrop R, Behr R, Khaitovich P, Pääbo S, Marques-Bonet T, Grützner F, Almstrup K, Schierup MH, Kaessmann H. The molecular evolution of spermatogenesis across mammals. Nature 2023; 613:308-316. [PMID: 36544022 PMCID: PMC9834047 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05547-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 40.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2021] [Accepted: 11/09/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
The testis produces gametes through spermatogenesis and evolves rapidly at both the morphological and molecular level in mammals1-6, probably owing to the evolutionary pressure on males to be reproductively successful7. However, the molecular evolution of individual spermatogenic cell types across mammals remains largely uncharacterized. Here we report evolutionary analyses of single-nucleus transcriptome data for testes from 11 species that cover the three main mammalian lineages (eutherians, marsupials and monotremes) and birds (the evolutionary outgroup), and include seven primates. We find that the rapid evolution of the testis was driven by accelerated fixation rates of gene expression changes, amino acid substitutions and new genes in late spermatogenic stages, probably facilitated by reduced pleiotropic constraints, haploid selection and transcriptionally permissive chromatin. We identify temporal expression changes of individual genes across species and conserved expression programs controlling ancestral spermatogenic processes. Genes predominantly expressed in spermatogonia (germ cells fuelling spermatogenesis) and Sertoli (somatic support) cells accumulated on X chromosomes during evolution, presumably owing to male-beneficial selective forces. Further work identified transcriptomal differences between X- and Y-bearing spermatids and uncovered that meiotic sex-chromosome inactivation (MSCI) also occurs in monotremes and hence is common to mammalian sex-chromosome systems. Thus, the mechanism of meiotic silencing of unsynapsed chromatin, which underlies MSCI, is an ancestral mammalian feature. Our study illuminates the molecular evolution of spermatogenesis and associated selective forces, and provides a resource for investigating the biology of the testis across mammals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florent Murat
- Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH), DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany. .,INRAE, LPGP, Rennes, France.
| | - Noe Mbengue
- Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH), DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany.
| | - Sofia Boeg Winge
- Department of Growth and Reproduction, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.,International Center for Research and Research Training in Endocrine Disruption of Male Reproduction and Child Health, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.,Bioinformatics Research Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Timo Trefzer
- Berlin Institute of Health at Charité, University of Medicine Berlin, Corporate Member of the Free University of Berlin, Humboldt-University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Evgeny Leushkin
- Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH), DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Mari Sepp
- Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH), DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | | | - Julia Schmidt
- Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH), DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Celine Schneider
- Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH), DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Katharina Mößinger
- Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH), DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Thoomke Brüning
- Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH), DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Francesco Lamanna
- Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH), DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | | | - Christian Conrad
- Berlin Institute of Health at Charité, University of Medicine Berlin, Corporate Member of the Free University of Berlin, Humboldt-University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Ivanela Kondova
- Biomedical Primate Research Center (BPRC), Rijswijk, the Netherlands
| | - Ronald Bontrop
- Biomedical Primate Research Center (BPRC), Rijswijk, the Netherlands
| | - Rüdiger Behr
- German Primate Center (DPZ), Platform Degenerative Diseases, Göttingen, Germany.,German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK), Partner Site Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Philipp Khaitovich
- Center for Neurobiology and Brain Restoration, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, Russia
| | - Svante Pääbo
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Tomas Marques-Bonet
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain.,Catalan Institution of Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain.,CNAG-CRG, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Barcelona, Spain.,Miquel Crusafont Catalan Institute of Paleontology, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Frank Grützner
- The Robinson Research Institute, School of Biological Science, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Kristian Almstrup
- Department of Growth and Reproduction, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.,International Center for Research and Research Training in Endocrine Disruption of Male Reproduction and Child Health, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.,Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | | | - Henrik Kaessmann
- Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH), DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany.
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Ma C, Li C, Ma H, Yu D, Zhang Y, Zhang D, Su T, Wu J, Wang X, Zhang L, Chen CL, Zhang YE. Pan-cancer surveys indicate cell cycle-related roles of primate-specific genes in tumors and embryonic cerebrum. Genome Biol 2022; 23:251. [PMID: 36474250 PMCID: PMC9724437 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-022-02821-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2021] [Accepted: 11/24/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Despite having been extensively studied, it remains largely unclear why humans bear a particularly high risk of cancer. The antagonistic pleiotropy hypothesis predicts that primate-specific genes (PSGs) tend to promote tumorigenesis, while the molecular atavism hypothesis predicts that PSGs involved in tumors may represent recently derived duplicates of unicellular genes. However, these predictions have not been tested. RESULTS By taking advantage of pan-cancer genomic data, we find the upregulation of PSGs across 13 cancer types, which is facilitated by copy-number gain and promoter hypomethylation. Meta-analyses indicate that upregulated PSGs (uPSGs) tend to promote tumorigenesis and to play cell cycle-related roles. The cell cycle-related uPSGs predominantly represent derived duplicates of unicellular genes. We prioritize 15 uPSGs and perform an in-depth analysis of one unicellular gene-derived duplicate involved in the cell cycle, DDX11. Genome-wide screening data and knockdown experiments demonstrate that DDX11 is broadly essential across cancer cell lines. Importantly, non-neutral amino acid substitution patterns and increased expression indicate that DDX11 has been under positive selection. Finally, we find that cell cycle-related uPSGs are also preferentially upregulated in the highly proliferative embryonic cerebrum. CONCLUSIONS Consistent with the predictions of the atavism and antagonistic pleiotropy hypotheses, primate-specific genes, especially those PSGs derived from cell cycle-related genes that emerged in unicellular ancestors, contribute to the early proliferation of the human cerebrum at the cost of hitchhiking by similarly highly proliferative cancer cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chenyu Ma
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution & State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Chunyan Li
- School of Engineering Medicine, Key Laboratory of Big Data-Based Precision Medicine (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology), and Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Big Data-Based Precision Medicine, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China
| | - Huijing Ma
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution & State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Daqi Yu
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution & State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Yufei Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution & State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
- School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China
| | - Dan Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution & State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Tianhan Su
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution & State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Jianmin Wu
- Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education/Beijing), Center for Cancer Bioinformatics, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute, Beijing, 100142, China
| | - Xiaoyue Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, School of Basic Medicine Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
| | - Li Zhang
- Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, 102206, China
| | - Chun-Long Chen
- Institut Curie, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, CNRS UMR3244, Dynamics of Genetic Information, 75005, Paris, France
| | - Yong E Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution & State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
- Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, 102206, China.
- CAS Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650223, China.
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10
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Leitão E, Schröder C, Parenti I, Dalle C, Rastetter A, Kühnel T, Kuechler A, Kaya S, Gérard B, Schaefer E, Nava C, Drouot N, Engel C, Piard J, Duban-Bedu B, Villard L, Stegmann APA, Vanhoutte EK, Verdonschot JAJ, Kaiser FJ, Tran Mau-Them F, Scala M, Striano P, Frints SGM, Argilli E, Sherr EH, Elder F, Buratti J, Keren B, Mignot C, Héron D, Mandel JL, Gecz J, Kalscheuer VM, Horsthemke B, Piton A, Depienne C. Systematic analysis and prediction of genes associated with monogenic disorders on human chromosome X. Nat Commun 2022; 13:6570. [PMID: 36323681 PMCID: PMC9630267 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34264-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2022] [Accepted: 10/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Disease gene discovery on chromosome (chr) X is challenging owing to its unique modes of inheritance. We undertook a systematic analysis of human chrX genes. We observe a higher proportion of disorder-associated genes and an enrichment of genes involved in cognition, language, and seizures on chrX compared to autosomes. We analyze gene constraints, exon and promoter conservation, expression, and paralogues, and report 127 genes sharing one or more attributes with known chrX disorder genes. Using machine learning classifiers trained to distinguish disease-associated from dispensable genes, we classify 247 genes, including 115 of the 127, as having high probability of being disease-associated. We provide evidence of an excess of variants in predicted genes in existing databases. Finally, we report damaging variants in CDK16 and TRPC5 in patients with intellectual disability or autism spectrum disorders. This study predicts large-scale gene-disease associations that could be used for prioritization of X-linked pathogenic variants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elsa Leitão
- Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital Essen, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Christopher Schröder
- Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital Essen, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Ilaria Parenti
- Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital Essen, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Carine Dalle
- Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière (ICM), Sorbonne Université, UMR S 1127, Inserm U1127, CNRS UMR 7225, F-75013, Paris, France
| | - Agnès Rastetter
- Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière (ICM), Sorbonne Université, UMR S 1127, Inserm U1127, CNRS UMR 7225, F-75013, Paris, France
| | - Theresa Kühnel
- Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital Essen, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Alma Kuechler
- Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital Essen, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Sabine Kaya
- Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital Essen, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Bénédicte Gérard
- Unité de Génétique Moléculaire, IGMA, Hôpitaux Universitaire de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
| | - Elise Schaefer
- Service de Génétique Médicale, IGMA, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
| | - Caroline Nava
- Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière (ICM), Sorbonne Université, UMR S 1127, Inserm U1127, CNRS UMR 7225, F-75013, Paris, France
| | - Nathalie Drouot
- Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Illkirch, 67400, France
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR7104, Illkirch, 67400, France
- Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U964, Illkirch, 67400, France
- Université de Strasbourg, Illkirch, 67400, France
| | - Camille Engel
- Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Illkirch, 67400, France
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR7104, Illkirch, 67400, France
- Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U964, Illkirch, 67400, France
- Université de Strasbourg, Illkirch, 67400, France
| | - Juliette Piard
- Centre de Génétique Humaine, CHU Besançon, Besançon, France
- INSERM UMR1231, Equipe Génétique des Anomalies du Développement, Université de Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
| | | | - Laurent Villard
- Aix-Marseille University, INSERM, MMG, UMR-S 1251, Faculté de médecine, Marseille, France
- Département de Génétique Médicale, APHM, Hôpital d'Enfants de La Timone, Marseille, France
| | - Alexander P A Stegmann
- Department of Human Genetics, Radboud University Medical Center, 6500 HB, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Department of Clinical Genetics, Maastricht University Medical Center+, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Els K Vanhoutte
- Department of Clinical Genetics, Maastricht University Medical Center+, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Job A J Verdonschot
- Department of Clinical Genetics, Maastricht University Medical Center+, Maastricht, The Netherlands
- Cardiovascular Research Institute (CARIM), Departments of Cardiology, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Frank J Kaiser
- Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital Essen, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Frédéric Tran Mau-Them
- INSERM UMR1231, Equipe Génétique des Anomalies du Développement, Université de Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
- Unité Fonctionnelle Innovation en Diagnostic génomique des maladies rares, CHU Dijon Bourgogne, Dijon, France
| | - Marcello Scala
- Department of Neurosciences, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health, University of Genoa, 16132, Genoa, Italy
- Pediatric Neurology and Muscular Diseases Unit, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, 16147, Genoa, Italy
| | - Pasquale Striano
- Department of Neurosciences, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health, University of Genoa, 16132, Genoa, Italy
- Pediatric Neurology and Muscular Diseases Unit, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, 16147, Genoa, Italy
| | - Suzanna G M Frints
- Department of Clinical Genetics, Maastricht University Medical Center+, Maastricht, The Netherlands
- Department of Genetics and Cell Biology, Faculty of Health Medicine Life Sciences, Maastricht University Medical Center+, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Emanuela Argilli
- Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Institute of Human Genetics and Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Elliott H Sherr
- Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Institute of Human Genetics and Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Fikret Elder
- UF de Génomique du Développement, Département de Génétique, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, APHP-Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
| | - Julien Buratti
- UF de Génomique du Développement, Département de Génétique, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, APHP-Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
| | - Boris Keren
- UF de Génomique du Développement, Département de Génétique, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, APHP-Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
| | - Cyril Mignot
- Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière (ICM), Sorbonne Université, UMR S 1127, Inserm U1127, CNRS UMR 7225, F-75013, Paris, France
- APHP, Sorbonne Université, Département de Génétique, Centre de Référence Déficiences Intellectuelles de Causes Rares, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière and Hôpital Trousseau, Paris, France
| | - Delphine Héron
- APHP, Sorbonne Université, Département de Génétique, Centre de Référence Déficiences Intellectuelles de Causes Rares, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière and Hôpital Trousseau, Paris, France
| | - Jean-Louis Mandel
- Unité de Génétique Moléculaire, IGMA, Hôpitaux Universitaire de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
- Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Illkirch, 67400, France
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR7104, Illkirch, 67400, France
- Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U964, Illkirch, 67400, France
- Université de Strasbourg, Illkirch, 67400, France
| | - Jozef Gecz
- School of Medicine, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, 5005, SA, Australia
- Robinson Research Institute, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5006, Australia
- South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, 5005, SA, Australia
| | - Vera M Kalscheuer
- Research Group Development and Disease, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany
| | - Bernhard Horsthemke
- Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital Essen, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Amélie Piton
- Unité de Génétique Moléculaire, IGMA, Hôpitaux Universitaire de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
- Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Illkirch, 67400, France
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR7104, Illkirch, 67400, France
- Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U964, Illkirch, 67400, France
- Université de Strasbourg, Illkirch, 67400, France
| | - Christel Depienne
- Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital Essen, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
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11
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Meisel RP, Asgari D, Schlamp F, Unckless RL. Induction and inhibition of Drosophila X chromosome gene expression are both impeded by the dosage compensation complex. G3 (BETHESDA, MD.) 2022; 12:6632659. [PMID: 35792851 PMCID: PMC9434221 DOI: 10.1093/g3journal/jkac165] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2022] [Accepted: 06/16/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Sex chromosomes frequently differ from the autosomes in the frequencies of genes with sexually dimorphic or tissue-specific expression. Multiple hypotheses have been put forth to explain the unique gene content of the X chromosome, including selection against male-beneficial X-linked alleles, expression limits imposed by the haploid dosage of the X in males, and interference by the dosage compensation complex on expression in males. Here, we investigate these hypotheses by examining differential gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster following several treatments that have widespread transcriptomic effects: bacterial infection, viral infection, and abiotic stress. We found that genes that are induced (upregulated) by these biotic and abiotic treatments are frequently under-represented on the X chromosome, but so are those that are repressed (downregulated) following treatment. We further show that whether a gene is bound by the dosage compensation complex in males can largely explain the paucity of both up- and downregulated genes on the X chromosome. Specifically, genes that are bound by the dosage compensation complex, or close to a dosage compensation complex high-affinity site, are unlikely to be up- or downregulated after treatment. This relationship, however, could partially be explained by a correlation between differential expression and breadth of expression across tissues. Nonetheless, our results suggest that dosage compensation complex binding, or the associated chromatin modifications, inhibit both up- and downregulation of X chromosome gene expression within specific contexts, including tissue-specific expression. We propose multiple possible mechanisms of action for the effect, including a role of Males absent on the first, a component of the dosage compensation complex, as a dampener of gene expression variance in both males and females. This effect could explain why the Drosophila X chromosome is depauperate in genes with tissue-specific or induced expression, while the mammalian X has an excess of genes with tissue-specific expression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard P Meisel
- Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, 3455 Cullen Blvd, Houston, TX 77204-5001, USA
| | - Danial Asgari
- Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, 3455 Cullen Blvd, Houston, TX 77204-5001, USA
| | - Florencia Schlamp
- Department of Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, 435 E 30th St, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Robert L Unckless
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas, 4055 Haworth Hall, 1200 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
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12
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Kotov AA, Bazylev SS, Adashev VE, Shatskikh AS, Olenina LV. Drosophila as a Model System for Studying of the Evolution and Functional Specialization of the Y Chromosome. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:4184. [PMID: 35457001 PMCID: PMC9031259 DOI: 10.3390/ijms23084184] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2022] [Revised: 04/06/2022] [Accepted: 04/07/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
The Y chromosome is one of the sex chromosomes found in males of animals of different taxa, including insects and mammals. Among all chromosomes, the Y chromosome is characterized by a unique chromatin landscape undergoing dynamic evolutionary change. Being entirely heterochromatic, the Y chromosome as a rule preserves few functional genes, but is enriched in tandem repeats and transposons. Due to difficulties in the assembly of the highly repetitive Y chromosome sequence, deep analyses of Y chromosome evolution, structure, and functions are limited to a few species, one of them being Drosophila melanogaster. Despite Y chromosomes exhibiting high structural divergence between even closely related species, Y-linked genes have evolved convergently and are mainly associated with spermatogenesis-related activities. This indicates that male-specific selection is a dominant force shaping evolution of Y chromosomes across species. This review presents our analysis of current knowledge concerning Y chromosome functions, focusing on recent findings in Drosophila. Here we dissect the experimental and bioinformatics data about the Y chromosome accumulated to date in Drosophila species, providing comparative analysis with mammals, and discussing the relevance of our analysis to a wide range of eukaryotic organisms, including humans.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Ludmila V. Olenina
- Institute of Molecular Genetics of National Research Center «Kurchatov Institute», 123182 Moscow, Russia; (A.A.K.); (S.S.B.); (V.E.A.); (A.S.S.)
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13
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Alavattam KG, Maezawa S, Andreassen PR, Namekawa SH. Meiotic sex chromosome inactivation and the XY body: a phase separation hypothesis. Cell Mol Life Sci 2021; 79:18. [PMID: 34971404 DOI: 10.1007/s00018-021-04075-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2021] [Revised: 09/08/2021] [Accepted: 10/14/2021] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
In mammalian male meiosis, the heterologous X and Y chromosomes remain unsynapsed and, as a result, are subject to meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI). MSCI is required for the successful completion of spermatogenesis. Following the initiation of MSCI, the X and Y chromosomes undergo various epigenetic modifications and are transformed into a nuclear body termed the XY body. Here, we review the mechanisms underlying the initiation of two essential, sequential processes in meiotic prophase I: MSCI and XY-body formation. The initiation of MSCI is directed by the action of DNA damage response (DDR) pathways; downstream of the DDR, unique epigenetic states are established, leading to the formation of the XY body. Accumulating evidence suggests that MSCI and subsequent XY-body formation may be driven by phase separation, a physical process that governs the formation of membraneless organelles and other biomolecular condensates. Thus, here we gather literature-based evidence to explore a phase separation hypothesis for the initiation of MSCI and the formation of the XY body.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kris G Alavattam
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA.,Center for Cardiovascular Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98109, USA.,Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98109, USA.,Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA
| | - So Maezawa
- Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Applied Biological Science, Tokyo University of Science, Chiba, 278-8510, Japan
| | - Paul R Andreassen
- Division of Experimental Hematology and Cancer Biology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, 45229, USA
| | - Satoshi H Namekawa
- Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
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14
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Su Q, He H, Zhou Q. On the Origin and Evolution of Drosophila New Genes during Spermatogenesis. Genes (Basel) 2021; 12:1796. [PMID: 34828402 PMCID: PMC8621406 DOI: 10.3390/genes12111796] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2021] [Revised: 11/09/2021] [Accepted: 11/12/2021] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
The origin of functional new genes is a basic biological process that has significant contribution to organismal diversity. Previous studies in both Drosophila and mammals showed that new genes tend to be expressed in testes and avoid the X chromosome, presumably because of meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI). Here, we analyze the published single-cell transcriptome data of Drosophila adult testis and find an enrichment of male germline mitotic genes, but an underrepresentation of meiotic genes on the X chromosome. This can be attributed to an excess of autosomal meiotic genes that were derived from their X-linked mitotic progenitors, which provides direct cell-level evidence for MSCI in Drosophila. We reveal that new genes, particularly those produced by retrotransposition, tend to exhibit an expression shift toward late spermatogenesis compared with their parental copies, probably due to the more intensive sperm competition or sexual conflict. Our results dissect the complex factors including age, the origination mechanisms and the chromosomal locations that influence the new gene origination and evolution in testes, and identify new gene cases that show divergent cell-level expression patterns from their progenitors for future functional studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qianwei Su
- The MOE Key Laboratory of Biosystems Homeostasis & Protection and Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Cancer Molecular Cell Biology, Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China; (Q.S.); (H.H.)
| | - Huangyi He
- The MOE Key Laboratory of Biosystems Homeostasis & Protection and Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Cancer Molecular Cell Biology, Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China; (Q.S.); (H.H.)
| | - Qi Zhou
- The MOE Key Laboratory of Biosystems Homeostasis & Protection and Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Cancer Molecular Cell Biology, Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China; (Q.S.); (H.H.)
- Department of Neuroscience and Developmental Biology, University of Vienna, 1030 Vienna, Austria
- Center for Reproductive Medicine, The 2nd Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310052, China
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15
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Subrini J, Turner J. Y chromosome functions in mammalian spermatogenesis. eLife 2021; 10:67345. [PMID: 34606444 PMCID: PMC8489898 DOI: 10.7554/elife.67345] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2021] [Accepted: 09/09/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The mammalian Y chromosome is critical for male sex determination and spermatogenesis. However, linking each Y gene to specific aspects of male reproduction has been challenging. As the Y chromosome is notoriously hard to sequence and target, functional studies have mostly relied on transgene-rescue approaches using mouse models with large multi-gene deletions. These experimental limitations have oriented the field toward the search for a minimum set of Y genes necessary for male reproduction. Here, considering Y-chromosome evolutionary history and decades of discoveries, we review the current state of research on its function in spermatogenesis and reassess the view that many Y genes are disposable for male reproduction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeremie Subrini
- Sex Chromosome Biology Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute, London, United Kingdom
| | - James Turner
- Sex Chromosome Biology Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute, London, United Kingdom
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16
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Russell A, Borrelli S, Fontana R, Laricchiuta J, Pascar J, Becking T, Giraud I, Cordaux R, Chandler CH. Evolutionary transition to XY sex chromosomes associated with Y-linked duplication of a male hormone gene in a terrestrial isopod. Heredity (Edinb) 2021; 127:266-277. [PMID: 34272503 PMCID: PMC8405825 DOI: 10.1038/s41437-021-00457-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2020] [Revised: 07/02/2021] [Accepted: 07/02/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Sex chromosomes are highly variable in some taxonomic groups, but the evolutionary mechanisms underlying this diversity are not well understood. In terrestrial isopod crustaceans, evolutionary turnovers in sex chromosomes are frequent, possibly caused by Wolbachia, a vertically-transmitted endosymbiont causing male-to-female sex reversal. Here, we use surgical manipulations and genetic crosses, plus genome sequencing, to examine sex chromosomes in the terrestrial isopod Trachelipus rathkei. Although an earlier cytogenetics study suggested a ZZ/ZW sex chromosome system in this species, we surprisingly find multiple lines of evidence that in our study population, sex is determined by an XX/XY system. Consistent with a recent evolutionary origin for this XX/XY system, the putative male-specific region of the genome is small. The genome shows evidence of Y-linked duplications of the gene encoding the androgenic gland hormone, a major component of male sexual differentiation in isopods. Our analyses also uncover sequences horizontally acquired from past Wolbachia infections, consistent with the hypothesis that Wolbachia may have interfered with the evolution of sex determination in T. rathkei. Overall, these results provide evidence for the co-occurrence of multiple sex chromosome systems within T. rathkei, further highlighting the relevance of terrestrial isopods as models for the study of sex chromosome evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aubrie Russell
- Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York at Oswego, Oswego, NY, USA
| | - Sevarin Borrelli
- Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York at Oswego, Oswego, NY, USA
| | - Rose Fontana
- Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York at Oswego, Oswego, NY, USA
| | - Joseph Laricchiuta
- Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York at Oswego, Oswego, NY, USA
| | - Jane Pascar
- Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York at Oswego, Oswego, NY, USA
- Biology Department, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA
| | - Thomas Becking
- Laboratoire Ecologie et Biologie des Interactions, Equipe Ecologie Evolution Symbiose, Université de Poitiers, UMR CNRS 7267, Poitiers, France
| | - Isabelle Giraud
- Laboratoire Ecologie et Biologie des Interactions, Equipe Ecologie Evolution Symbiose, Université de Poitiers, UMR CNRS 7267, Poitiers, France
| | - Richard Cordaux
- Laboratoire Ecologie et Biologie des Interactions, Equipe Ecologie Evolution Symbiose, Université de Poitiers, UMR CNRS 7267, Poitiers, France
| | - Christopher H Chandler
- Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York at Oswego, Oswego, NY, USA.
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17
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Wang Z, Zhang J, Xu X, Witt C, Deng Y, Chen G, Meng G, Feng S, Xu L, Szekely T, Zhang G, Zhou Q. Phylogeny and sex chromosome evolution of palaeognathae. J Genet Genomics 2021; 49:109-119. [PMID: 34872841 DOI: 10.1016/j.jgg.2021.06.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2020] [Revised: 06/10/2021] [Accepted: 06/17/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Many paleognaths (ratites and tinamous) have a pair of homomorphic ZW sex chromosomes in contrast to the highly differentiated sex chromosomes of most other birds. To understand the evolutionary causes for the different tempos of sex chromosome evolution, we produced female genomes of 12 paleognathous species and reconstructed the phylogeny and the evolutionary history of paleognathous sex chromosomes. We uncovered that Palaeognathae sex chromosomes had undergone stepwise recombination suppression and formed a pattern of "evolutionary strata". Nine of the 15 studied species' sex chromosomes have maintained homologous recombination in their long pseudoautosomal regions extending more than half of the entire chromosome length. We found that in older strata, the W chromosome suffered more serious functional gene loss. Their homologous Z-linked regions, compared with other genomic regions, have produced an excess of species-specific autosomal duplicated genes that evolved female-specific expression, in contrast to their broadly expressed progenitors. We speculate the "defeminization" of Z chromosome with underrepresentation of female-biased genes and slow divergence of sex chromosomes of paleognaths might be related to their distinctive mode of sexual selection targeting females that evolved in their common ancestors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zongji Wang
- MOE Laboratory of Biosystems Homeostasis and Protection and Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Cancer Molecular Cell Biology, Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China; Department of Neuroscience and Developmental Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria; Institute of Animal Sex and Development, Zhejiang Wanli University, Ningbo, Zhejiang 315100, China; BGI-Shenzhen, Beishan Industrial Zone, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Jilin Zhang
- Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Xiaoman Xu
- MOE Laboratory of Biosystems Homeostasis and Protection and Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Cancer Molecular Cell Biology, Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China
| | - Christopher Witt
- Department of Biology and the Museum of Southwestern Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
| | - Yuan Deng
- BGI-Shenzhen, Beishan Industrial Zone, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Guangji Chen
- BGI-Shenzhen, Beishan Industrial Zone, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Guanliang Meng
- BGI-Shenzhen, Beishan Industrial Zone, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Shaohong Feng
- BGI-Shenzhen, Beishan Industrial Zone, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Luohao Xu
- Department of Neuroscience and Developmental Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria
| | - Tamas Szekely
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Department of Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China; Milner Center for Evolution, Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Bath BA1 7AY, UK
| | - Guojie Zhang
- BGI-Shenzhen, Beishan Industrial Zone, Shenzhen 518083, China; State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China; Section for Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark; Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China.
| | - Qi Zhou
- MOE Laboratory of Biosystems Homeostasis and Protection and Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Cancer Molecular Cell Biology, Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China; Department of Neuroscience and Developmental Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria; Center for Reproductive Medicine, The 2nd Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310052, China.
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18
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Couger MB, Roy SW, Anderson N, Gozashti L, Pirro S, Millward LS, Kim M, Kilburn D, Liu KJ, Wilson TM, Epps CW, Dizney L, Ruedas LA, Campbell P. Sex chromosome transformation and the origin of a male-specific X chromosome in the creeping vole. Science 2021; 372:592-600. [PMID: 33958470 DOI: 10.1126/science.abg7019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2021] [Accepted: 04/07/2021] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
The mammalian sex chromosome system (XX female/XY male) is ancient and highly conserved. The sex chromosome karyotype of the creeping vole (Microtus oregoni) represents a long-standing anomaly, with an X chromosome that is unpaired in females (X0) and exclusively maternally transmitted. We produced a highly contiguous male genome assembly, together with short-read genomes and transcriptomes for both sexes. We show that M. oregoni has lost an independently segregating Y chromosome and that the male-specific sex chromosome is a second X chromosome that is largely homologous to the maternally transmitted X. Both maternally inherited and male-specific sex chromosomes carry fragments of the ancestral Y chromosome. Consequences of this recently transformed sex chromosome system include Y-like degeneration and gene amplification on the male-specific X, expression of ancestral Y-linked genes in females, and X inactivation of the male-specific chromosome in male somatic cells. The genome of M. oregoni elucidates the processes that shape the gene content and dosage of mammalian sex chromosomes and exemplifies a rare case of plasticity in an ancient sex chromosome system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew B Couger
- Department of Thoracic Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston MA, 02115, USA
| | - Scott W Roy
- Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94117, USA.,Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA 95343, USA
| | - Noelle Anderson
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA 95343, USA
| | - Landen Gozashti
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Stacy Pirro
- Iridian Genomes, Inc., Bethesda, MD 20817, USA
| | - Lindsay S Millward
- Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97330, USA
| | | | | | | | - Todd M Wilson
- US Forest Service, PNW Research Station, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
| | - Clinton W Epps
- Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97330, USA
| | - Laurie Dizney
- Department of Biology, University of Portland, Portland, OR 97203, USA
| | - Luis A Ruedas
- Department of Biology and Museum of Natural History, Portland State University, Portland, OR 97207, USA
| | - Polly Campbell
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
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19
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Zeng H, Chen X, Li H, Zhang J, Wei Z, Wang Y. Interpopulation differences of retroduplication variations (RDVs) in rice retrogenes and their phenotypic correlations. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2021; 19:600-611. [PMID: 33510865 PMCID: PMC7811064 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2020.12.046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2020] [Revised: 12/29/2020] [Accepted: 12/31/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Retroduplication variation (RDV), a type of retrocopy polymorphism, is considered to have essential biological significance, but its effect on gene function and species phenotype is still poorly understood. To this end, we analyzed the retrocopies and RDVs in 3,010 rice genomes. We calculated the RDV frequencies in the genome of each rice population; detected the mutated, ancestral and expressed retrogenes in rice genomes; and analyzed their RDV influence on rice phenotypic traits. Collectively, 73 RDVs were identified, and 14 RDVs in ancestral retrogenes can significantly affect rice phenotypes. Our research reveals that RDV plays an important role in rice migration, domestication and evolution. We think that RDV is a good molecular breeding marker candidate. To our knowledge, this is the first study on the relationship between retrogene function, expression, RDV and species phenotype.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haiyue Zeng
- State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
- Biological Science Research Center, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
- Shennong Class, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Xingyu Chen
- Shennong Class, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Hongbo Li
- College of Electronic and Information Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715
| | - Jun Zhang
- College of Computer & Information Science, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Zhaoyuan Wei
- State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
- Biological Science Research Center, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Yi Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
- Biological Science Research Center, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
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20
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The evolution of sex chromosome dosage compensation in animals. J Genet Genomics 2020; 47:681-693. [PMID: 33579636 DOI: 10.1016/j.jgg.2020.10.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2020] [Revised: 10/03/2020] [Accepted: 10/04/2020] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
Abstract
The evolution of heteromorphic sex chromosomes shall lead to gene expression dosage problems, as in at least one of the sexes, the sex-linked gene dose has been reduced by half. It has been proposed that the transcriptional output of the whole X or Z chromosome should be doubled for complete dosage compensation in heterogametic sex. However, owing to the variability of the existing methods to determine the transcriptional differences between sex chromosomes and autosomes (S:A ratios) in different studies, we collected more than 500 public RNA-Seq data set from multiple tissues and species in major clades and proposed a unified computational framework for unbiased and comparable measurement of the S:A ratios of multiple species. We also tested the evolution of dosage compensation more directly by assessing changes in the expression levels of the current sex-linked genes relative to those of the ancestral sex-linked genes. We found that in mammals and birds, the S:A ratio is approximately 0.5, whereas in insects, fishes, and flatworms, the S:A ratio is approximately 1.0. Further analysis showed that the fraction of dosage-sensitive housekeeping genes on the X/Z chromosome is significantly correlated with the S:A ratio. In addition, the degree of degeneration of the Y chromosome may be responsible for the change in the S:A ratio in mammals without a dosage compensation mechanism. Our observations offer unequivocal support for the sex chromosome insensitivity hypothesis in animals and suggest that dosage sensitivity states of sex chromosomes are a major factor underlying different evolutionary strategies of dosage compensation.
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21
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Xu L, Irestedt M, Zhou Q. Sequence Transpositions Restore Genes on the Highly Degenerated W Chromosomes of Songbirds. Genes (Basel) 2020; 11:E1267. [PMID: 33126459 PMCID: PMC7692361 DOI: 10.3390/genes11111267] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2020] [Revised: 10/15/2020] [Accepted: 10/22/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The female-specific W chromosomes of most Neognathae birds are highly degenerated and gene-poor. Previous studies have demonstrated that the gene repertoires of the Neognathae bird W chromosomes, despite being in small numbers, are conserved across bird species, likely due to purifying selection maintaining the regulatory and dosage-sensitive genes. Here we report the discovery of DNA-based sequence duplications from the Z to the W chromosome in birds-of-paradise (Paradisaeidae, Passeriformes), through sequence transposition. The original transposition involved nine genes, but only two of them (ANXA1 and ALDH1A1) survived on the W chromosomes. Both ANXA1 and ALDH1A1 are predicted to be dosage-sensitive, and the expression of ANXA1 is restricted to ovaries in all the investigated birds. These analyses suggest the newly transposed gene onto the W chromosomes can be favored for their role in restoring dosage imbalance or through female-specific selection. After examining seven additional songbird genomes, we further identified five other transposed genes on the W chromosomes of Darwin's finches and one in the great tit, expanding the observation of the Z-to-W transpositions to a larger range of bird species, but not all transposed genes exhibit dosage-sensitivity or ovary-biased expression We demonstrate a new mechanism by which the highly degenerated W chromosomes of songbirds can acquire genes from the homologous Z chromosomes, but further functional investigations are needed to validate the evolutionary forces underlying the transpositions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luohao Xu
- Department of Neurosciences and Developmental Biology, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria;
| | - Martin Irestedt
- Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics, Swedish Museum of Natural History, 104 05 Stockholm, Sweden;
| | - Qi Zhou
- Department of Neurosciences and Developmental Biology, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria;
- MOE Laboratory of Biosystems Homeostasis & Protection, Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310012, China
- Center for Reproductive Medicine, The 2nd Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310012, China
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22
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Amalgamated cross-species transcriptomes reveal organ-specific propensity in gene expression evolution. Nat Commun 2020; 11:4459. [PMID: 32900997 PMCID: PMC7479108 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18090-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2019] [Accepted: 07/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The origins of multicellular physiology are tied to evolution of gene expression. Genes can shift expression as organisms evolve, but how ancestral expression influences altered descendant expression is not well understood. To examine this, we amalgamate 1,903 RNA-seq datasets from 182 research projects, including 6 organs in 21 vertebrate species. Quality control eliminates project-specific biases, and expression shifts are reconstructed using gene-family-wise phylogenetic Ornstein-Uhlenbeck models. Expression shifts following gene duplication result in more drastic changes in expression properties than shifts without gene duplication. The expression properties are tightly coupled with protein evolutionary rate, depending on whether and how gene duplication occurred. Fluxes in expression patterns among organs are nonrandom, forming modular connections that are reshaped by gene duplication. Thus, if expression shifts, ancestral expression in some organs induces a strong propensity for expression in particular organs in descendants. Regardless of whether the shifts are adaptive or not, this supports a major role for what might be termed preadaptive pathways of gene expression evolution.
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23
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Yang L, Emerman M, Malik HS, McLaughlin RN. Retrocopying expands the functional repertoire of APOBEC3 antiviral proteins in primates. eLife 2020; 9:58436. [PMID: 32479260 PMCID: PMC7263822 DOI: 10.7554/elife.58436] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2020] [Accepted: 05/13/2020] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Host-virus arms races are inherently asymmetric; viruses evolve much more rapidly than host genomes. Thus, there is high interest in discovering mechanisms by which host genomes keep pace with rapidly evolving viruses. One family of restriction factors, the APOBEC3 (A3) cytidine deaminases, has undergone positive selection and expansion via segmental gene duplication and recombination. Here, we show that new copies of A3 genes have also been created in primates by reverse transcriptase-encoding elements like LINE-1 or endogenous retroviruses via a process termed retrocopying. First, we discovered that all simian primate genomes retain the remnants of an ancient A3 retrocopy: A3I. Furthermore, we found that some New World monkeys encode up to ten additional APOBEC3G (A3G) retrocopies. Some of these A3G retrocopies are transcribed in a variety of tissues and able to restrict retroviruses. Our findings suggest that host genomes co-opt retroelement activity in the germline to create new host restriction factors as another means to keep pace with the rapid evolution of viruses. (163)
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Affiliation(s)
- Lei Yang
- Pacific Northwest Research Institute, Seattle, United States
| | - Michael Emerman
- Division of Human Biology, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, United States
| | - Harmit S Malik
- Division of Basic Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, United States.,Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, United States
| | - Richard N McLaughlin
- Pacific Northwest Research Institute, Seattle, United States.,Division of Basic Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, United States
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24
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Yin H, Li M, Xia L, He C, Zhang Z. Computational determination of gene age and characterization of evolutionary dynamics in human. Brief Bioinform 2019; 20:2141-2149. [PMID: 30184145 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bby074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2018] [Revised: 08/01/2018] [Accepted: 08/02/2018] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Genes originate at different evolutionary time scales and possess different ages, accordingly presenting diverse functional characteristics and reflecting distinct adaptive evolutionary innovations. In the past decades, progresses have been made in gene age identification by a variety of methods that are principally based on comparative genomics. Here we summarize methods for computational determination of gene age and evaluate the effectiveness of different computational methods for age identification. Our results show that improved age determination can be achieved by combining homolog clustering with phylogeny inference, which enables more accurate age identification in human genes. Accordingly, we characterize evolutionary dynamics of human genes based on an extremely long evolutionary time scale spanning ~4,000 million years from archaea/bacteria to human, revealing that young genes are clustered on certain chromosomes and that Mendelian disease genes (including monogenic disease and polygenic disease genes) and cancer genes exhibit divergent evolutionary origins. Taken together, deciphering genes' ages as well as their evolutionary dynamics is of fundamental significance in unveiling the underlying mechanisms during evolution and better understanding how young or new genes become indispensable integrants coupled with novel phenotypes and biological diversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongyan Yin
- Hainan Key Laboratory for Sustainable Utilization of Tropical Bioresources, Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Forestry, Hainan University, China
| | - Mengwei Li
- CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Lin Xia
- CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Chaozu He
- Hainan Key Laboratory for Sustainable Utilization of Tropical Bioresources, Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Forestry, Hainan University, China
| | - Zhang Zhang
- BIG Data Center & CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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25
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Posynick BJ, Brown CJ. Escape From X-Chromosome Inactivation: An Evolutionary Perspective. Front Cell Dev Biol 2019; 7:241. [PMID: 31696116 PMCID: PMC6817483 DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2019.00241] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2019] [Accepted: 10/02/2019] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Sex chromosomes originate as a pair of homologus autosomes that then follow a general pattern of divergence. This is evident in mammalian sex chromosomes, which have undergone stepwise recombination suppression events that left footprints of evolutionary strata on the X chromosome. The loss of genes on the Y chromosome led to Ohno’s hypothesis of dosage equivalence between XY males and XX females, which is achieved through X-chromosome inactivation (XCI). This process transcriptionally silences all but one X chromosome in each female cell, although 15–30% of human X-linked genes still escape inactivation. There are multiple evolutionary pathways that may lead to a gene escaping XCI, including remaining Y chromosome homology, or female advantage to escape. The conservation of some escape genes across multiple species and the ability of the mouse inactive X to recapitulate human escape status both suggest that escape from XCI is controlled by conserved processes. Evolutionary pressures to minimize dosage imbalances have led to the accumulation of genetic elements that favor either silencing or escape; lack of dosage sensitivity might also allow for the escape of flanking genes near another escapee, if a boundary element is not present between them. Delineation of the elements involved in escape is progressing, but mechanistic understanding of how they interact to allow escape from XCI is still lacking. Although increasingly well-studied in humans and mice, non-trivial challenges to studying escape have impeded progress in other species. Mouse models that can dissect the role of the sex chromosomes distinct from sex of the organism reveal an important contribution for escape genes to multiple diseases. In humans, with their elevated number of escape genes, the phenotypic consequences of sex chromosome aneuplodies and sexual dimorphism in disease both highlight the importance of escape genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bronwyn J Posynick
- Department of Medical Genetics, Molecular Epigenetics Group, Life Sciences Institute, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Carolyn J Brown
- Department of Medical Genetics, Molecular Epigenetics Group, Life Sciences Institute, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
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26
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Zhang F, Zhang Y, Lv X, Xu B, Zhang H, Yan J, Li H, Wu L. Evolution of an X-Linked miRNA Family Predominantly Expressed in Mammalian Male Germ Cells. Mol Biol Evol 2019; 36:663-678. [PMID: 30649414 PMCID: PMC6445303 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msz001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important posttranscriptional regulators of gene expression. However, comprehensive expression profiles of miRNAs during mammalian spermatogenesis are lacking. Herein, we sequenced small RNAs in highly purified mouse spermatogenic cells at different stages. We found that a family of X-linked miRNAs named spermatogenesis-related miRNAs (spermiRs) is predominantly expressed in the early meiotic phases and has a conserved testis-specific high expression pattern in different mammals. We identified one spermiR homolog in opossum; this homolog might originate from THER1, a retrotransposon that is active in marsupials but extinct in current placental mammals. SpermiRs have expanded rapidly with mammalian evolution and are diverged into two clades, spermiR-L and spermiR-R, which are likely to have been generated at least in part by tandem duplication mediated by flanking retrotransposable elements. Notably, despite having undergone highly frequent lineage-specific duplication events, the sequences encoding all spermiR family members are strictly located between two protein-coding genes, Slitrk2 and Fmr1. Moreover, spermiR-Ls and spermiR-Rs have evolved different expression patterns during spermatogenesis in different mammals. Intriguingly, the seed sequences of spermiRs, which are critical for the recognition of target genes, are highly divergent within and among mammals, whereas spermiR target genes largely overlap. When miR-741, the most highly expressed spermiR, is knocked out in cultured mouse spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs), another spermiR, miR-465a-5p, is dramatically upregulated and becomes the most abundant miRNA. Notably, miR-741−/− SSCs grow normally, and the genome-wide expression levels of mRNAs remain unchanged. All these observations indicate functional compensation between spermiR family members and strong coevolution between spermiRs and their targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fengjuan Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.,Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Andrology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Ying Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.,Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Andrology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Xiaolong Lv
- State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.,Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Andrology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Beiying Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.,Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Andrology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Hongdao Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.,Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Andrology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Jun Yan
- Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Haipeng Li
- Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Ligang Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.,Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Andrology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
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27
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Tsai KL, Evans JM, Noorai RE, Starr-Moss AN, Clark LA. Novel Y Chromosome Retrocopies in Canids Revealed through a Genome-Wide Association Study for Sex. Genes (Basel) 2019; 10:genes10040320. [PMID: 31027231 PMCID: PMC6523286 DOI: 10.3390/genes10040320] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2019] [Revised: 04/17/2019] [Accepted: 04/18/2019] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The lack of an annotated reference sequence for the canine Y chromosome has limited evolutionary studies, as well as our understanding of the role of Y-linked sequences in phenotypes with a sex bias. In genome-wide association studies (GWASs), we observed spurious associations with autosomal SNPs when sex was unbalanced in case-control cohorts and hypothesized that a subset of SNPs mapped to autosomes are in fact sex-linked. Using the Illumina 230K CanineHD array in a GWAS for sex, we identified SNPs that amplify in both sexes but possess significant allele frequency differences between males and females. We found 48 SNPs mapping to 14 regions of eight autosomes and the X chromosome that are Y-linked, appearing heterozygous in males and monomorphic in females. Within these 14 regions are eight genes: three autosomal and five X-linked. We investigated the autosomal genes (MITF, PPP2CB, and WNK1) and determined that the SNPs are diverged nucleotides in retrocopies that have transposed to the Y chromosome. MITFY and WNK1Y are expressed and appeared recently in the Canidae lineage, whereas PPP2CBY represents a much older insertion with no evidence of expression in the dog. This work reveals novel canid Y chromosome sequences and provides evidence for gene transposition to the Y from autosomes and the X.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kate L Tsai
- Department of Genetics and Biochemistry, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA.
| | - Jacquelyn M Evans
- Department of Genetics and Biochemistry, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA.
- Cancer Genetics and Comparative Genomics Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-2152, USA.
| | - Rooksana E Noorai
- Clemson University Genomics and Bioinformatics Facility, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA.
| | - Alison N Starr-Moss
- Department of Genetics and Biochemistry, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA.
| | - Leigh Anne Clark
- Department of Genetics and Biochemistry, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA.
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28
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Abstract
The evolution of heteromorphic sex chromosomes has occurred independently many times in different lineages. The differentiation of sex chromosomes leads to dramatic changes in sequence composition and function and guides the evolutionary trajectory and utilization of genes in pivotal sex determination and reproduction roles. In addition, meiotic recombination and pairing mechanisms are key in orchestrating the resultant impact, retention and maintenance of heteromorphic sex chromosomes, as the resulting exposure of unpaired DNA at meiosis triggers ancient repair and checkpoint pathways. In this review, we summarize the different ways in which sex chromosome systems are organized at meiosis, how pairing is affected, and differences in unpaired DNA responses. We hypothesize that lineage specific differences in meiotic organization is not only a consequence of sex chromosome evolution, but that the establishment of epigenetic changes on sex chromosomes contributes toward their evolutionary conservation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tasman Daish
- Comparative Genome Biology Laboratory, Department of Molecular and Biomedical Science, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Frank Grützner
- Comparative Genome Biology Laboratory, Department of Molecular and Biomedical Science, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
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29
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Yang JR, Chen X. Dosage sensitivity of X-linked genes in human embryonic single cells. BMC Genomics 2019; 20:42. [PMID: 30642250 PMCID: PMC6332578 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-019-5432-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2018] [Accepted: 01/03/2019] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND During the evolution of mammalian sex chromosomes, the degeneration of Y-linked homologs has led to a dosage imbalance between X-linked and autosomal genes. The evolutionary resolution to such dosage imbalance, as hypothesized by Susumu Ohno fifty years ago, should be doubling the expression of X-linked genes. Recent studies have nevertheless shown that the X to autosome expression ratio equals ~ 1 in haploid human parthenogenetic embryonic stem (pES) cells and ~ 0.5 in diploid pES cells, suggesting no doubled expression for X-linked genes and refuting Ohno's hypothesis. RESULTS Here, by reanalyzing an RNA-seq-based single-cell transcriptome dataset of human embryos, we found that from the 8-cell stage until the time-point just prior to implantation, the expression levels of X-linked genes are not two-fold upregulated in male cells and gradually decrease from two-fold in female cells. Additional analyses of gene expression noise further suggest that the dosage sensitivity of X-linked genes is weaker than that of autosomal genes in differentiated female cells, which contradicts a key assumption in Ohno's hypothesis, that most X-linked genes are dosage sensitive. Moreover, the dosage-sensitive housekeeping genes are preferentially located on autosomes, implying selection against X-linkage for dosage-sensitive genes. CONCLUSIONS We observed dosage imbalance between X-linked and autosomal genes, as well as relatively high expression noise from X-linked genes. These results collectively suggest that X-linked genes are less dosage sensitive than autosomal genes, putting one primary assumption of Ohno's hypothesis in question.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jian-Rong Yang
- Department of Biology, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University, 1227 Medical Science and Technology Building, 74 Zhongshan 2nd Road, Guangzhou, 510080, Guangdong, China. .,RNA Biomedical Institute, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510120, China. .,Program in Cancer Research, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510080, China.
| | - Xiaoshu Chen
- Department of Medical Genetics, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University, 1212 Medical Science and Technology Building, 74 Zhongshan 2nd Road, Guangzhou, 510080, Guangdong, China.
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30
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Chen J, Mortola E, Du X, Zhao S, Liu X. Excess of retrogene traffic in pig X chromosome. Genetica 2018; 147:23-32. [PMID: 30535819 DOI: 10.1007/s10709-018-0048-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2018] [Accepted: 11/21/2018] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Despite the insights into retrogene evolution in multiple species provided by trans-traffic retrogenes (trans-retrogenes), cis-traffic retrogenes (cis-retrogenes) are hitherto understudied and thus limit our understanding of genetic novelty. Here we used the pig genome as a model to compare cis- and trans-retrogenes. We found that cis- and trans-retrogenes have similar patterns in terms of excessive X-chromosome representation, testis expression preference, and metabolic functional enrichment. Despite these similarities, lower levels of selective pressure were found in cis- than in trans-retrogenes. The evolutionary dating evidence revealed that more cis-retrogenes have originated after pig-cattle divergence than trans-retrogenes, suggesting a more recent origination of cis-retrogenes. The gene family clustering confirmed that excesses of X-derived cis-retrogenes may be driven by their rapid expansion in the recent times. Thus, the different selective constraints between cis- and trans-retrogenes may be due to different evolutionary time-scales rather than any differential functional importance. Thus, this study highlights the ongoing functional contributions from cis- and trans-traffic retrogenes during the reshaping of pig genome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jianhai Chen
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Education, College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, People's Republic of China
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Emily Mortola
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Xiaoyong Du
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, People's Republic of China
| | - Shuhong Zhao
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Education, College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, People's Republic of China.
| | - Xiangdong Liu
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Education, College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, People's Republic of China.
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31
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Exaptation at the molecular genetic level. SCIENCE CHINA-LIFE SCIENCES 2018; 62:437-452. [PMID: 30798493 DOI: 10.1007/s11427-018-9447-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2018] [Accepted: 12/01/2018] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
The realization that body parts of animals and plants can be recruited or coopted for novel functions dates back to, or even predates the observations of Darwin. S.J. Gould and E.S. Vrba recognized a mode of evolution of characters that differs from adaptation. The umbrella term aptation was supplemented with the concept of exaptation. Unlike adaptations, which are restricted to features built by selection for their current role, exaptations are features that currently enhance fitness, even though their present role was not a result of natural selection. Exaptations can also arise from nonaptations; these are characters which had previously been evolving neutrally. All nonaptations are potential exaptations. The concept of exaptation was expanded to the molecular genetic level which aided greatly in understanding the enormous potential of neutrally evolving repetitive DNA-including transposed elements, formerly considered junk DNA-for the evolution of genes and genomes. The distinction between adaptations and exaptations is outlined in this review and examples are given. Also elaborated on is the fact that such distinctions are sometimes more difficult to determine; this is a widespread phenomenon in biology, where continua abound and clear borders between states and definitions are rare.
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Liu J, Robinson-Rechavi M. Developmental Constraints on Genome Evolution in Four Bilaterian Model Species. Genome Biol Evol 2018; 10:2266-2277. [PMID: 30137380 PMCID: PMC6130771 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evy177] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/17/2018] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Developmental constraints on genome evolution have been suggested to follow either an early conservation model or an "hourglass" model. Both models agree that late development strongly diverges between species, but debate on which developmental period is the most conserved. Here, based on a modified "Transcriptome Age Index" approach, that is, weighting trait measures by expression level, we analyzed the constraints acting on three evolutionary traits of protein coding genes (strength of purifying selection on protein sequences, phyletic age, and duplicability) in four species: Nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, fly Drosophila melanogaster, zebrafish Danio rerio, and mouse Mus musculus. In general, we found that both models can be supported by different genomic properties. Sequence evolution follows an hourglass model, but the evolution of phyletic age and of duplicability follow an early conservation model. Further analyses indicate that stronger purifying selection on sequences in the middle development are driven by temporal pleiotropy of these genes. In addition, we report evidence that expression in late development is enriched with retrogenes, which usually lack efficient regulatory elements. This implies that expression in late development could facilitate transcription of new genes, and provide opportunities for acquisition of function. Finally, in C. elegans, we suggest that dosage imbalance could be one of the main factors that cause depleted expression of high duplicability genes in early development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jialin Liu
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Marc Robinson-Rechavi
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
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33
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Genes Relocated Between Drosophila Chromosome Arms Evolve Under Relaxed Selective Constraints Relative to Non-Relocated Genes. J Mol Evol 2018; 86:340-352. [PMID: 29926120 DOI: 10.1007/s00239-018-9849-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2018] [Accepted: 06/11/2018] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
Gene duplication creates a second copy of a gene either in tandem to the ancestral locus or dispersed to another chromosomal location. When the ancestral copy of a dispersed duplicate is lost from the genome, it creates the appearance that the gene was "relocated" from the ancestral locus to the derived location. Gene relocations may be as common as canonical dispersed duplications in which both the ancestral and derived copies are retained. Relocated genes appear to be under more selective constraints than the derived copies of canonical duplications, and they are possibly as conserved as single-copy non-relocated genes. To test this hypothesis, we combined comparative genomics, population genetics, gene expression, and functional analyses to assess the selection pressures acting on relocated, duplicated, and non-relocated single-copy genes in Drosophila genomes. We find that relocated genes evolve faster than single-copy non-relocated genes, and there is no evidence that this faster evolution is driven by positive selection. In addition, relocated genes are less essential for viability and male fertility than single-copy non-relocated genes, suggesting that relocated genes evolve fast because of relaxed selective constraints. However, relocated genes evolve slower than the derived copies of canonical dispersed duplicated genes. We therefore conclude that relocated genes are under more selective constraints than canonical duplicates, but are not as conserved as single-copy non-relocated genes.
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34
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Marin R, Cortez D, Lamanna F, Pradeepa MM, Leushkin E, Julien P, Liechti A, Halbert J, Brüning T, Mössinger K, Trefzer T, Conrad C, Kerver HN, Wade J, Tschopp P, Kaessmann H. Convergent origination of a Drosophila-like dosage compensation mechanism in a reptile lineage. Genome Res 2017; 27:1974-1987. [PMID: 29133310 PMCID: PMC5741051 DOI: 10.1101/gr.223727.117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2017] [Accepted: 10/23/2017] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
Sex chromosomes differentiated from different ancestral autosomes in various vertebrate lineages. Here, we trace the functional evolution of the XY Chromosomes of the green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis), on the basis of extensive high-throughput genome, transcriptome and histone modification sequencing data and revisit dosage compensation evolution in representative mammals and birds with substantial new expression data. Our analyses show that Anolis sex chromosomes represent an ancient XY system that originated at least ≈160 million years ago in the ancestor of Iguania lizards, shortly after the separation from the snake lineage. The age of this system approximately coincides with the ages of the avian and two mammalian sex chromosomes systems. To compensate for the almost complete Y Chromosome degeneration, X-linked genes have become twofold up-regulated, restoring ancestral expression levels. The highly efficient dosage compensation mechanism of Anolis represents the only vertebrate case identified so far to fully support Ohno's original dosage compensation hypothesis. Further analyses reveal that X up-regulation occurs only in males and is mediated by a male-specific chromatin machinery that leads to global hyperacetylation of histone H4 at lysine 16 specifically on the X Chromosome. The green anole dosage compensation mechanism is highly reminiscent of that of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. Altogether, our work unveils the convergent emergence of a Drosophila-like dosage compensation mechanism in an ancient reptilian sex chromosome system and highlights that the evolutionary pressures imposed by sex chromosome dosage reductions in different amniotes were resolved in fundamentally different ways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ray Marin
- Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.,Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Diego Cortez
- Center for Genomic Sciences, UNAM, CP62210 Cuernavaca, Mexico
| | - Francesco Lamanna
- Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University (ZMBH), DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Madapura M Pradeepa
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ, United Kingdom
| | - Evgeny Leushkin
- Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University (ZMBH), DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Philippe Julien
- EMBL/CRG Systems Biology Research Unit, Centre for Genomic Regulation, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Angélica Liechti
- Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Jean Halbert
- Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Thoomke Brüning
- Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University (ZMBH), DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Katharina Mössinger
- Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University (ZMBH), DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Timo Trefzer
- Department of Theoretical Bioinformatics, German Cancer Research Center/BioQuant, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Christian Conrad
- Department of Theoretical Bioinformatics, German Cancer Research Center/BioQuant, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Halie N Kerver
- Neuroscience Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA
| | - Juli Wade
- Neuroscience Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA.,Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA
| | - Patrick Tschopp
- Institute of Zoology, University of Basel, 4051 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Henrik Kaessmann
- Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University (ZMBH), DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
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35
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Lipinska AP, Toda NRT, Heesch S, Peters AF, Cock JM, Coelho SM. Multiple gene movements into and out of haploid sex chromosomes. Genome Biol 2017; 18:104. [PMID: 28595587 PMCID: PMC5463336 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-017-1201-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2016] [Accepted: 03/27/2017] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Long-term evolution of sex chromosomes is a dynamic process shaped by gene gain and gene loss. Sex chromosome gene traffic has been studied in XY and ZW systems but no detailed analyses have been carried out for haploid phase UV sex chromosomes. Here, we explore sex-specific sequences of seven brown algal species to understand the dynamics of the sex-determining region (SDR) gene content across 100 million years of evolution. RESULTS A core set of sex-linked genes is conserved across all the species investigated, but we also identify modifications of both the U and the V SDRs that occurred in a lineage-specific fashion. These modifications involve gene loss, gene gain and relocation of genes from the SDR to autosomes. Evolutionary analyses suggest that the SDR genes are evolving rapidly and that this is due to relaxed purifying selection. Expression analysis indicates that genes that were acquired from the autosomes have been retained in the SDR because they confer a sex-specific role in reproduction. By examining retroposed genes in Saccharina japonica, we demonstrate that UV sex chromosomes have generated a disproportionate number of functional orphan retrogenes compared with autosomes. Movement of genes out of the UV sex chromosome could be a means to compensate for gene loss from the non-recombining region, as has been suggested for Y-derived retrogenes in XY sexual systems. CONCLUSION This study provides the first analysis of gene traffic in a haploid UV system and identifies several features of general relevance to the evolution of sex chromosomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Agnieszka P Lipinska
- Sorbonne Université, UPMC Univ Paris 06, CNRS, Algal Genetics Group, UMR 8227, Integrative Biology of Marine Models, Station Biologique de Roscoff, CS 90074, F-29688, Roscoff, France
| | - Nicholas R T Toda
- Sorbonne Université, UPMC Univ Paris 06, CNRS, Algal Genetics Group, UMR 8227, Integrative Biology of Marine Models, Station Biologique de Roscoff, CS 90074, F-29688, Roscoff, France
| | - Svenja Heesch
- Sorbonne Université, UPMC Univ Paris 06, CNRS, Algal Genetics Group, UMR 8227, Integrative Biology of Marine Models, Station Biologique de Roscoff, CS 90074, F-29688, Roscoff, France
| | | | - J Mark Cock
- Sorbonne Université, UPMC Univ Paris 06, CNRS, Algal Genetics Group, UMR 8227, Integrative Biology of Marine Models, Station Biologique de Roscoff, CS 90074, F-29688, Roscoff, France
| | - Susana M Coelho
- Sorbonne Université, UPMC Univ Paris 06, CNRS, Algal Genetics Group, UMR 8227, Integrative Biology of Marine Models, Station Biologique de Roscoff, CS 90074, F-29688, Roscoff, France.
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36
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Casola C, Betrán E. The Genomic Impact of Gene Retrocopies: What Have We Learned from Comparative Genomics, Population Genomics, and Transcriptomic Analyses? Genome Biol Evol 2017; 9:1351-1373. [PMID: 28605529 PMCID: PMC5470649 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evx081] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/18/2017] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Gene duplication is a major driver of organismal evolution. Gene retroposition is a mechanism of gene duplication whereby a gene's transcript is used as a template to generate retroposed gene copies, or retrocopies. Intriguingly, the formation of retrocopies depends upon the enzymatic machinery encoded by retrotransposable elements, genomic parasites occurring in the majority of eukaryotes. Most retrocopies are depleted of the regulatory regions found upstream of their parental genes; therefore, they were initially considered transcriptionally incompetent gene copies, or retropseudogenes. However, examples of functional retrocopies, or retrogenes, have accumulated since the 1980s. Here, we review what we have learned about retrocopies in animals, plants and other eukaryotic organisms, with a particular emphasis on comparative and population genomic analyses complemented with transcriptomic datasets. In addition, these data have provided information about the dynamics of the different "life cycle" stages of retrocopies (i.e., polymorphic retrocopy number variants, fixed retropseudogenes and retrogenes) and have provided key insights into the retroduplication mechanisms, the patterns and evolutionary forces at work during the fixation process and the biological function of retrogenes. Functional genomic and transcriptomic data have also revealed that many retropseudogenes are transcriptionally active and a biological role has been experimentally determined for many. Finally, we have learned that not only non-long terminal repeat retroelements but also long terminal repeat retroelements play a role in the emergence of retrocopies across eukaryotes. This body of work has shown that mRNA-mediated duplication represents a widespread phenomenon that produces an array of new genes that contribute to organismal diversity and adaptation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudio Casola
- Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, Texas A&M University, TX
| | - Esther Betrán
- Department of Biology, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX
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37
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Jiang L, Li T, Zhang X, Zhang B, Yu C, Li Y, Fan S, Jiang X, Khan T, Hao Q, Xu P, Nadano D, Huleihel M, Lunenfeld E, Wang PJ, Zhang Y, Shi Q. RPL10L Is Required for Male Meiotic Division by Compensating for RPL10 during Meiotic Sex Chromosome Inactivation in Mice. Curr Biol 2017; 27:1498-1505.e6. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.04.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2016] [Revised: 03/05/2017] [Accepted: 04/11/2017] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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38
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Wang Y. PlantRGDB: A Database of Plant Retrocopied Genes. PLANT & CELL PHYSIOLOGY 2017; 58:e2. [PMID: 28111365 DOI: 10.1093/pcp/pcw210] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2016] [Accepted: 11/17/2016] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
RNA-based gene duplication, known as retrocopy, plays important roles in gene origination and genome evolution. The genomes of many plants have been sequenced, offering an opportunity to annotate and mine the retrocopies in plant genomes. However, comprehensive and unified annotation of retrocopies in these plants is still lacking. In this study I constructed the PlantRGDB (Plant Retrocopied Gene DataBase), the first database of plant retrocopies, to provide a putatively complete centralized list of retrocopies in plant genomes. The database is freely accessible at http://probes.pw.usda.gov/plantrgdb or http://aegilops.wheat.ucdavis.edu/plantrgdb. It currently integrates 49 plant species and 38,997 retrocopies along with characterization information. PlantRGDB provides a user-friendly web interface for searching, browsing and downloading the retrocopies in the database. PlantRGDB also offers graphical viewer-integrated sequence information for displaying the structure of each retrocopy. The attributes of the retrocopies of each species are reported using a browse function. In addition, useful tools, such as an advanced search and BLAST, are available to search the database more conveniently. In conclusion, the database will provide a web platform for obtaining valuable insight into the generation of retrocopies and will supplement research on gene duplication and genome evolution in plants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yi Wang
- USDA-ARS, Western Regional Research Center, Crop Improvement and Genetics Research Unit, Albany, CA, USA
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
- USDA-ARS, Plant Gene Expression Center, Albany, CA, USA
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39
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Warren IA, Naville M, Chalopin D, Levin P, Berger CS, Galiana D, Volff JN. Evolutionary impact of transposable elements on genomic diversity and lineage-specific innovation in vertebrates. Chromosome Res 2016; 23:505-31. [PMID: 26395902 DOI: 10.1007/s10577-015-9493-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 77] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
Since their discovery, a growing body of evidence has emerged demonstrating that transposable elements are important drivers of species diversity. These mobile elements exhibit a great variety in structure, size and mechanisms of transposition, making them important putative actors in organism evolution. The vertebrates represent a highly diverse and successful lineage that has adapted to a wide range of different environments. These animals also possess a rich repertoire of transposable elements, with highly diverse content between lineages and even between species. Here, we review how transposable elements are driving genomic diversity and lineage-specific innovation within vertebrates. We discuss the large differences in TE content between different vertebrate groups and then go on to look at how they affect organisms at a variety of levels: from the structure of chromosomes to their involvement in the regulation of gene expression, as well as in the formation and evolution of non-coding RNAs and protein-coding genes. In the process of doing this, we highlight how transposable elements have been involved in the evolution of some of the key innovations observed within the vertebrate lineage, driving the group's diversity and success.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ian A Warren
- Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, CNRS UMR5242, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Magali Naville
- Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, CNRS UMR5242, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Domitille Chalopin
- Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, CNRS UMR5242, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Lyon, France.,Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, 30602, USA
| | - Perrine Levin
- Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, CNRS UMR5242, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Chloé Suzanne Berger
- Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, CNRS UMR5242, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Delphine Galiana
- Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, CNRS UMR5242, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Jean-Nicolas Volff
- Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, CNRS UMR5242, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Lyon, France.
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40
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Chalmel F, Rolland AD. Linking transcriptomics and proteomics in spermatogenesis. Reproduction 2016; 150:R149-57. [PMID: 26416010 DOI: 10.1530/rep-15-0073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
Abstract
Spermatogenesis is a complex and tightly regulated process leading to the continuous production of male gametes, the spermatozoa. This developmental process requires the sequential and coordinated expression of thousands of genes, including many that are testis-specific. The molecular networks underlying normal and pathological spermatogenesis have been widely investigated in recent decades, and many high-throughput expression studies have studied genes and proteins involved in male fertility. In this review, we focus on studies that have attempted to correlate transcription and translation during spermatogenesis by comparing the testicular transcriptome and proteome. We also discuss the recent development and use of new transcriptomic approaches that provide a better proxy for the proteome, from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives. Finally, we provide illustrations of how testis-derived transcriptomic and proteomic data can be integrated to address new questions and how the 'proteomics informed by transcriptomics' technique, by combining RNA-seq and MS-based proteomics, can contribute significantly to the discovery of new protein-coding genes or new protein isoforms expressed during spermatogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frédéric Chalmel
- Inserm U1085-IrsetUniversité de Rennes 1, F-35042 Rennes, France
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41
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Contrasting Levels of Molecular Evolution on the Mouse X Chromosome. Genetics 2016; 203:1841-57. [PMID: 27317678 DOI: 10.1534/genetics.116.186825] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2016] [Accepted: 06/08/2016] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The mammalian X chromosome has unusual evolutionary dynamics compared to autosomes. Faster-X evolution of spermatogenic protein-coding genes is known to be most pronounced for genes expressed late in spermatogenesis, but it is unclear if these patterns extend to other forms of molecular divergence. We tested for faster-X evolution in mice spanning three different forms of molecular evolution-divergence in protein sequence, gene expression, and DNA methylation-across different developmental stages of spermatogenesis. We used FACS to isolate individual cell populations and then generated cell-specific transcriptome profiles across different stages of spermatogenesis in two subspecies of house mice (Mus musculus), thereby overcoming a fundamental limitation of previous studies on whole tissues. We found faster-X protein evolution at all stages of spermatogenesis and faster-late protein evolution for both X-linked and autosomal genes. In contrast, there was less expression divergence late in spermatogenesis (slower late) on the X chromosome and for autosomal genes expressed primarily in testis (testis-biased). We argue that slower-late expression divergence reflects strong regulatory constraints imposed during this critical stage of sperm development and that these constraints are particularly acute on the tightly regulated sex chromosomes. We also found slower-X DNA methylation divergence based on genome-wide bisulfite sequencing of sperm from two species of mice (M. musculus and M. spretus), although it is unclear whether slower-X DNA methylation reflects development constraints in sperm or other X-linked phenomena. Our study clarifies key differences in patterns of regulatory and protein evolution across spermatogenesis that are likely to have important consequences for mammalian sex chromosome evolution, male fertility, and speciation.
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42
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Zimmer F, Harrison PW, Dessimoz C, Mank JE. Compensation of Dosage-Sensitive Genes on the Chicken Z Chromosome. Genome Biol Evol 2016; 8:1233-42. [PMID: 27044516 PMCID: PMC4860703 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evw075] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/26/2016] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
In many diploid species, sex determination is linked to a pair of sex chromosomes that evolved from a pair of autosomes. In these organisms, the degeneration of the sex-limited Y or W chromosome causes a reduction in gene dose in the heterogametic sex for X- or Z-linked genes. Variations in gene dose are detrimental for large chromosomal regions when they span dosage-sensitive genes, and many organisms were thought to evolve complete mechanisms of dosage compensation to mitigate this. However, the recent realization that a wide variety of organisms lack complete mechanisms of sex chromosome dosage compensation has presented a perplexing question: How do organisms with incomplete dosage compensation avoid deleterious effects of gene dose differences between the sexes? Here we use expression data from the chicken (Gallus gallus) to show that ohnologs, duplicated genes known to be dosage-sensitive, are preferentially dosage-compensated on the chicken Z chromosome. Our results indicate that even in the absence of a complete and chromosome wide dosage compensation mechanism, dosage-sensitive genes are effectively dosage compensated on the Z chromosome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabian Zimmer
- Department of Genetics Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Peter W Harrison
- Department of Genetics Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Christophe Dessimoz
- Department of Genetics Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, United Kingdom Department of Ecology and Evolution & Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Biophore 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Biophore, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Judith E Mank
- Department of Genetics Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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43
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Hu YC, Namekawa SH. Functional significance of the sex chromosomes during spermatogenesis. Reproduction 2016; 149:R265-77. [PMID: 25948089 DOI: 10.1530/rep-14-0613] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
Mammalian sex chromosomes arose from an ordinary pair of autosomes. Over hundreds of millions of years, they have evolved into highly divergent X and Y chromosomes and have become increasingly specialized for male reproduction. Both sex chromosomes have acquired and amplified testis-specific genes, suggestive of roles in spermatogenesis. To understand how the sex chromosome genes participate in the regulation of spermatogenesis, we review genes, including single-copy, multi-copy, and ampliconic genes, whose spermatogenic functions have been demonstrated in mouse genetic studies. Sex chromosomes are subject to chromosome-wide transcriptional silencing in meiotic and postmeiotic stages of spermatogenesis. We also discuss particular sex-linked genes that escape postmeiotic silencing and their evolutionary implications. The unique gene contents and genomic structures of the sex chromosomes reflect their strategies to express genes at various stages of spermatogenesis and reveal the driving forces that shape their evolution.Free Chinese abstract: A Chinese translation of this abstract is freely available at http://www.reproduction-online.org/content/149/6/R265/suppl/DC1.Free Japanese abstract: A Japanese translation of this abstract is freely available at http://www.reproduction-online.org/content/149/6/R265/suppl/DC2.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yueh-Chiang Hu
- Division of Developmental BiologyDivision of Reproductive SciencesCincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229, USA
| | - Satoshi H Namekawa
- Division of Developmental BiologyDivision of Reproductive SciencesCincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229, USA Division of Developmental BiologyDivision of Reproductive SciencesCincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229, USA
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44
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Carelli FN, Hayakawa T, Go Y, Imai H, Warnefors M, Kaessmann H. The life history of retrocopies illuminates the evolution of new mammalian genes. Genome Res 2016; 26:301-14. [PMID: 26728716 PMCID: PMC4772013 DOI: 10.1101/gr.198473.115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 83] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2015] [Accepted: 12/21/2015] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
New genes contribute substantially to adaptive evolutionary innovation, but the functional evolution of new mammalian genes has been little explored at a broad scale. Previous work established mRNA-derived gene duplicates, known as retrocopies, as models for the study of new gene origination. Here we combine mammalian transcriptomic and epigenomic data to unveil the processes underlying the evolution of stripped-down retrocopies into complex new genes. We show that although some robustly expressed retrocopies are transcribed from preexisting promoters, most evolved new promoters from scratch or recruited proto-promoters in their genomic vicinity. In particular, many retrocopy promoters emerged from ancestral enhancers (or bivalent regulatory elements) or are located in CpG islands not associated with other genes. We detected 88–280 selectively preserved retrocopies per mammalian species, illustrating that these mechanisms facilitated the birth of many functional retrogenes during mammalian evolution. The regulatory evolution of originally monoexonic retrocopies was frequently accompanied by exon gain, which facilitated co-option of distant promoters and allowed expression of alternative isoforms. While young retrogenes are often initially expressed in the testis, increased regulatory and structural complexities allowed retrogenes to functionally diversify and evolve somatic organ functions, sometimes as complex as those of their parents. Thus, some retrogenes evolved the capacity to temporarily substitute for their parents during the process of male meiotic X inactivation, while others rendered parental functions superfluous, allowing for parental gene loss. Overall, our reconstruction of the “life history” of mammalian retrogenes highlights retroposition as a general model for understanding new gene birth and functional evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesco Nicola Carelli
- Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Takashi Hayakawa
- Department of Wildlife Science (Nagoya Railroad Company, Limited), Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi 484-8506, Japan; Japan Monkey Center, Inuyama, Aichi 484-0081, Japan
| | - Yasuhiro Go
- Department of Brain Sciences, Center for Novel Science Initiatives, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki, Aichi 444-8585, Japan; Department of Developmental Physiology, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki, Aichi 444-8585, Japan; Department of Physiological Sciences, School of Life Science, SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Okazaki, Aichi 484-8585, Japan
| | - Hiroo Imai
- Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi 484-8506, Japan
| | - Maria Warnefors
- Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Henrik Kaessmann
- Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
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The Constrained Maximal Expression Level Owing to Haploidy Shapes Gene Content on the Mammalian X Chromosome. PLoS Biol 2015; 13:e1002315. [PMID: 26685068 PMCID: PMC4686125 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002315] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2015] [Accepted: 11/02/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
X chromosomes are unusual in many regards, not least of which is their nonrandom gene content. The causes of this bias are commonly discussed in the context of sexual antagonism and the avoidance of activity in the male germline. Here, we examine the notion that, at least in some taxa, functionally biased gene content may more profoundly be shaped by limits imposed on gene expression owing to haploid expression of the X chromosome. Notably, if the X, as in primates, is transcribed at rates comparable to the ancestral rate (per promoter) prior to the X chromosome formation, then the X is not a tolerable environment for genes with very high maximal net levels of expression, owing to transcriptional traffic jams. We test this hypothesis using The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) and data from the Functional Annotation of the Mammalian Genome (FANTOM5) project. As predicted, the maximal expression of human X-linked genes is much lower than that of genes on autosomes: on average, maximal expression is three times lower on the X chromosome than on autosomes. Similarly, autosome-to-X retroposition events are associated with lower maximal expression of retrogenes on the X than seen for X-to-autosome retrogenes on autosomes. Also as expected, X-linked genes have a lesser degree of increase in gene expression than autosomal ones (compared to the human/Chimpanzee common ancestor) if highly expressed, but not if lowly expressed. The traffic jam model also explains the known lower breadth of expression for genes on the X (and the Z of birds), as genes with broad expression are, on average, those with high maximal expression. As then further predicted, highly expressed tissue-specific genes are also rare on the X and broadly expressed genes on the X tend to be lowly expressed, both indicating that the trend is shaped by the maximal expression level not the breadth of expression per se. Importantly, a limit to the maximal expression level explains biased tissue of expression profiles of X-linked genes. Tissues whose tissue-specific genes are very highly expressed (e.g., secretory tissues, tissues abundant in structural proteins) are also tissues in which gene expression is relatively rare on the X chromosome. These trends cannot be fully accounted for in terms of alternative models of biased expression. In conclusion, the notion that it is hard for genes on the Therian X to be highly expressed, owing to transcriptional traffic jams, provides a simple yet robustly supported rationale of many peculiar features of X’s gene content, gene expression, and evolution. Laurence Hurst, Lukasz Huminiecki, and the FANTOM5 consortium propose a new explanation for the peculiar expression properties of genes on the human X chromosome, based on the premise that very high expression levels cannot be achieved on a haploid-expressed chromosome. Genes located on the human X chromosome are not a random mix of genes: they tend to be expressed in relatively few tissues or are specific for a particular set of tissues, e.g., brain regions. Prior attempts to explain this skewed gene content have hypothesized that the X chromosome might be peculiar because it has to balance mutations that are advantageous to one sex but deleterious to the other, or because it has to shut down during the process of sperm manufacture in males. Here we suggest and test a third possible explanation: that genes on the X chromosome are limited in their transcription levels and thus tend to be genes that are lowly or specifically expressed. We consider the suggestion that since these genes can only be expressed from one chromosome, as males only have one X, the ability to express a gene at very high rates is limited owing to potential transcriptional traffic jams. As predicted, we find that human X-located genes have maximal expression rates far below that of genes residing on autosomes. When we look at genes that have moved onto or off the X chromosome during recent evolution, we find the maximal expression is higher when not on the X chromosome. We also find that X-located genes that are relatively highly expressed are not able to increase their expression level further. Our model explains both the enrichment for tissue specificity and the paucity of certain tissues with X-located genes. Genes underrepresented on the X are either expressed in many tissues—such genes tend to have high maximal expression—or are from tissues that require a lot of transcription (e.g., fast secreting tissues like the liver). Just as many of the findings cannot be explained by the two earlier models, neither can the traffic jam model explain all the peculiar features of the genes found on the X chromosome. Indeed, we find evidence of a reproduction-related bias in X-located genes, even after allowing for the traffic jam problem.
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Du K, He S. Evolutionary fate and implications of retrocopies in the African coelacanth genome. BMC Genomics 2015; 16:915. [PMID: 26555943 PMCID: PMC4641402 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-015-2178-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2015] [Accepted: 10/31/2015] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The coelacanth is known as a "living fossil" because of its morphological resemblance to its fossil ancestors. Thus, it serves as a useful model that provides insight into the fish that first walked on land. Retrocopies are a type of novel genetic element that are likely to contribute to genome or phenotype innovations. Thus, investigating retrocopies in the coelacanth genome can determine the role of retrocopies in coelacanth genome innovations and perhaps even water-to-land adaptations. RESULTS We determined the dS values, dN/dS ratios, expression patterns, and enrichment of functional categories for 472 retrocopies in the African coelacanth genome. Of the retrocopies, 85-355 were shown to be potentially functional (i.e., retrogenes). The distribution of retrocopies based on their dS values revealed a burst pattern of young retrocopies in the genome. The retrocopy birth pattern was shown to be more similar to that in tetrapods than ray-finned fish, which indicates a genomic transformation that accompanied vertebrate evolution from water to land. Among these retrocopies, retrogenes were more prevalent in old than young retrocopies, which indicates that most retrocopies may have been eliminated during evolution, even though some retrocopies survived, attained biological function as retrogenes, and became old. Transcriptome data revealed that many retrocopies showed a biased expression pattern in the testis, although the expression was not specifically associated with a particular retrocopy age range. We identified 225 Ensembl genes that overlapped with the coelacanth genome retrocopies. GO enrichment analysis revealed different overrepresented GO (gene ontology) terms between these "retrocopy-overlapped genes" and the retrocopy parent genes, which indicates potential genomic functional organization produced by retrotranspositions. Among the 225 retrocopy-overlapped genes, we also identified 46 that were coelacanth-specific, which could represent a potential molecular basis for coelacanth evolution. CONCLUSIONS Our study identified 472 retrocopies in the coelacanth genome. Sequence analysis of these retrocopies and their parent genes, transcriptome data, and GO annotation information revealed novel insight about the potential role of genomic retrocopies in coelacanth evolution and vertebrate adaptations during the evolutionary transition from water to land.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kang Du
- Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China. .,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
| | - Shunping He
- Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China.
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Inter-population Differences in Retrogene Loss and Expression in Humans. PLoS Genet 2015; 11:e1005579. [PMID: 26474060 PMCID: PMC4608704 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1005579] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2015] [Accepted: 09/15/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Gene retroposition leads to considerable genetic variation between individuals. Recent studies revealed the presence of at least 208 retroduplication variations (RDVs), a class of polymorphisms, in which a retrocopy is present or absent from individual genomes. Most of these RDVs resulted from recent retroduplications. In this study, we used the results of Phase 1 from the 1000 Genomes Project to investigate the variation in loss of ancestral (i.e. shared with other primates) retrocopies among different human populations. In addition, we examined retrocopy expression levels using RNA-Seq data derived from the Ilumina BodyMap project, as well as data from lymphoblastoid cell lines provided by the Geuvadis Consortium. We also developed a new approach to detect novel retrocopies absent from the reference human genome. We experimentally confirmed the existence of the detected retrocopies and determined their presence or absence in the human genomes of 17 different populations. Altogether, we were able to detect 193 RDVs; the majority resulted from retrocopy deletion. Most of these RDVs had not been previously reported. We experimentally confirmed the expression of 11 ancestral retrogenes that underwent deletion in certain individuals. The frequency of their deletion, with the exception of one retrogene, is very low. The expression, conservation and low rate of deletion of the remaining 10 retrocopies may suggest some functionality. Aside from the presence or absence of expressed retrocopies, we also searched for differences in retrocopy expression levels between populations, finding 9 retrogenes that undergo statistically significant differential expression.
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Hughes JF, Skaletsky H, Koutseva N, Pyntikova T, Page DC. Sex chromosome-to-autosome transposition events counter Y-chromosome gene loss in mammals. Genome Biol 2015; 16:104. [PMID: 26017895 PMCID: PMC4446799 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-015-0667-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2015] [Accepted: 05/06/2015] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Although the mammalian X and Y chromosomes evolved from a single pair of autosomes, they are highly differentiated: the Y chromosome is dramatically smaller than the X and has lost most of its genes. The surviving genes are a specialized set with extraordinary evolutionary longevity. Most mammalian lineages have experienced delayed, or relatively recent, loss of at least one conserved Y-linked gene. An extreme example of this phenomenon is in the Japanese spiny rat, where the Y chromosome has disappeared altogether. In this species, many Y-linked genes were rescued by transposition to new genomic locations, but until our work presented here, this has been considered an isolated case. RESULTS We describe eight cases of genes that have relocated to autosomes in mammalian lineages where the corresponding Y-linked gene has been lost. These gene transpositions originated from either the X or Y chromosomes, and are observed in diverse mammalian lineages: occurring at least once in marsupials, apes, and cattle, and at least twice in rodents and marmoset. For two genes--EIF1AX/Y and RPS4X/Y--transposition to autosomes occurred independently in three distinct lineages. CONCLUSIONS Rescue of Y-linked gene loss through transposition to autosomes has previously been reported for a single isolated rodent species. However, our findings indicate that this compensatory mechanism is widespread among mammalian species. Thus, Y-linked gene loss emerges as an additional driver of gene transposition from the sex chromosomes, a phenomenon thought to be driven primarily by meiotic sex chromosome inactivation.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Helen Skaletsky
- Whitehead Institute, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA. .,Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Whitehead Institute, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA.
| | | | | | - David C Page
- Whitehead Institute, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA. .,Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Whitehead Institute, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA. .,Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA.
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Blackmon H, Demuth JP. Genomic origins of insect sex chromosomes. CURRENT OPINION IN INSECT SCIENCE 2015; 7:45-50. [PMID: 32846676 DOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2014.12.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2014] [Revised: 12/08/2014] [Accepted: 12/09/2014] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Recent efforts to catalog the diversity of sex chromosome systems coupled with genome sequencing projects are adding a new level of resolution to our understanding of insect sex chromosome origins. Y-chromosome degeneration makes sequencing difficult and may erase homology so rapidly that their origins will often remain enigmatic. X-chromosome origins are better understood, but thus far prove to be remarkably labile, often lacking homology even among close relatives. Furthermore, evidence now suggests that differentiated X or Y-chromosomes may both revert to autosomal inheritance. Data for ZW systems is scarcer, but W and Y-chromosomes seem to share many characteristics. Limited evidence suggests that Z-chromosome homology is more conserved than X counterparts, but broader sampling of both sex chromosome systems is needed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heath Blackmon
- Department of Biology, University of Texas at Arlington, Box 19498, Arlington, TX 76019, USA
| | - Jeffery P Demuth
- Department of Biology, University of Texas at Arlington, Box 19498, Arlington, TX 76019, USA.
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50
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Wang Z, Zhang J, Yang W, An N, Zhang P, Zhang G, Zhou Q. Temporal genomic evolution of bird sex chromosomes. BMC Evol Biol 2014; 14:250. [PMID: 25527260 PMCID: PMC4272511 DOI: 10.1186/s12862-014-0250-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2014] [Accepted: 11/20/2014] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Sex chromosomes exhibit many unusual patterns in sequence and gene expression relative to autosomes. Birds have evolved a female heterogametic sex system (male ZZ, female ZW), through stepwise suppression of recombination between chrZ and chrW. To address the broad patterns and complex driving forces of Z chromosome evolution, we analyze here 45 newly available bird genomes and four species' transcriptomes, over their course of recombination loss between the sex chromosomes. RESULTS We show Z chromosomes in general have a significantly higher substitution rate in introns and synonymous protein-coding sites than autosomes, driven by the male-to-female mutation bias ('male-driven evolution' effect). Our genome-wide estimate reveals that the degree of such a bias ranges from 1.6 to 3.8 among different species. G + C content of third codon positions exhibits the same trend of gradual changes with that of introns, between chrZ and autosomes or regions with increasing ages of becoming Z-linked, therefore codon usage bias in birds is probably driven by the mutational bias. On the other hand, Z chromosomes also evolve significantly faster at nonsynonymous sites relative to autosomes ('fast-Z' evolution). And species with a lower level of intronic heterozygosities tend to evolve even faster on the Z chromosome. Further analysis of fast-evolving genes' enriched functional categories and sex-biased expression patterns support that, fast-Z evolution in birds is mainly driven by genetic drift. Finally, we show in species except for chicken, gene expression becomes more male-biased within Z-linked regions that have became hemizygous in females for a longer time, suggesting a lack of global dosage compensation in birds, and the reported regional dosage compensation in chicken has only evolved very recently. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, we uncover that the sequence and expression patterns of Z chromosome genes covary with their ages of becoming Z-linked. In contrast to the mammalian X chromosomes, such patterns are mainly driven by mutational bias and genetic drift in birds, due to the opposite sex-biased inheritance of Z vs. X.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zongji Wang
- />School of Bioscience and Bioengineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006 China
- />China National GeneBank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083 China
| | - Jilin Zhang
- />China National GeneBank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083 China
| | - Wei Yang
- />China National GeneBank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083 China
| | - Na An
- />China National GeneBank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083 China
| | - Pei Zhang
- />China National GeneBank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083 China
| | - Guojie Zhang
- />China National GeneBank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083 China
- />Department of Biology, Centre for Social Evolution, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Qi Zhou
- />Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA94720 USA
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