Multiple nuclear gene phylogenetic analysis of the evolution of dioecy and sex chromosomes in the genus Silene

Heterochiasmy and Sex Chromosome Evolution in Silene

The evolution of a non-recombining sex-specific region is a key step in sex chromosome evolution. Suppression of recombination between the (proto-) X- and Y-chromosomes in male meiosis creates a non-recombining Y-linked region (NRY), while the X-chromosome continues to recombine in females. Lack of recombination in the NRY defines its main properties—genetic degeneration and accumulation of repetitive DNA, making X and Y chromosomes very different from each other. How and why recombination suppression on sex chromosomes evolves remains controversial. A strong difference in recombination rates between the sexes (heterochiasmy) can facilitate or even cause recombination suppression. In the extreme case—complete lack of recombination in the heterogametic sex (achiasmy)—the entire sex-specific chromosome is automatically non-recombining. In this study, I analyse sex-specific recombination rates in a dioecious plant Silene latifolia (Caryophyllaceae), which evolved separate sexes and sex chromosomes ~11 million years ago. I reconstruct high-density RNAseq-based genetic maps including over five thousand genic markers for the two sexes separately. The comparison of the male and female maps reveals only modest heterochiasmy across the genome, with the exception of the sex chromosomes, where recombination is suppressed in males. This indicates that heterochiasmy likely played only a minor, if any, role in NRY evolution in S. latifolia, as recombination suppression is specific to NRY rather than to the entire genome in males. Other mechanisms such as structural rearrangements and/or epigenetic modifications were likely involved, and comparative genome analysis and genetic mapping in multiple Silene species will help to shed light on the mechanism(s) of recombination suppression that led to the evolution of sex chromosomes.

Evolution of Young Sex Chromosomes in Two Dioecious Sister Plant Species with Distinct Sex Determination Systems

In the last decade, progress has been made in methods to identify the sex determination system in plants. This gives the opportunity to study sex chromosomes that arose independently at different phylogenetic scales, and thus allows the discovery and the understanding of early stages of sex chromosome evolution. In the genus Silene, sex chromosomes have evolved independently in at least two clades from a nondioecious ancestor, the Melandrium and Otites sections. In the latter, sex chromosomes could be younger than in the section Melandrium, based on phylogenetic studies and as no heteromorphic sex chromosomes have been detected. This section might also exhibit lability in sex determination, because male heterogamy and female heterogamy have been suggested to occur.

In this study, we investigated the sex determination system of two dioecious species in the section Otites (Silene otites and its close relative Silene pseudotites). Applying the new probabilistic method SEX-DETector on RNA-seq data from cross-controlled progenies, we inferred their most likely sex determination system and a list of putative autosomal and sex-linked contigs. We showed that the two phylogenetically close species differed in their sex determination system (XY versus ZW) with sex chromosomes that derived from two different pairs of autosomes. We built a genetic map of the sex chromosomes and showed that both pairs exhibited a large region with lack of recombination. However, the sex-limited chromosomes exhibited no strong degeneration. Finally, using the “ancestral” autosomal expression of sex-linked orthologs of nondioecious S. nutans, we found a slight signature of dosage compensation in the heterogametic females of S. otites.

Has adaptation occurred in males and females since separate sexes evolved in the plant Silene latifolia?

The evolution of separate sexes may involve changed expression of many genes, as each sex adapts to its new state. Evidence is accumulating for sex differences in expression even in organisms that have recently evolved separate sexes from hermaphrodite or monoecious (cosexual) ancestors, such as some dioecious flowering plants. We describe evidence that a dioecious plant species with recently evolved dioecy, Silene latifolia, has undergone adaptive changes that improve functioning in females, in addition to changes that are probably pleiotropic effects of male sterility. The results suggest pervasive adaptations as soon as males and females evolve from their cosexual ancestor.

Genetic architecture of traits associated with reproductive barriers in Silene: Coupling, sex chromosomes and variation

The evolution of reproductive barriers and their underlying genetic architecture is of central importance for the formation of new species. Reproductive barriers can be controlled either by few large-effect loci suggesting strong selection on key traits, or by many small-effect loci, consistent with gradual divergence or with selection on polygenic or multiple traits. Genetic coupling between reproductive barrier loci further promotes divergence, particularly divergence with ongoing gene flow. In this study, we investigated the genetic architectures of ten morphological, phenological and life history traits associated with reproductive barriers between the hybridizing sister species Silene dioica and S. latifolia; both are dioecious with XY-sex determination. We used quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping in two reciprocal F₂ crosses. One to six QTLs per trait, including nine major QTLs (PVE > 20%), were detected on 11 of the 12 linkage groups. We found strong evidence for coupling of QTLs for uncorrelated traits and for an important role of sex chromosomes in the genetic architectures of reproductive barrier traits. Unexpectedly, QTLs detected in the two F₂ crosses differed largely, despite limited phenotypic differences between them and sufficient statistical power. The widely dispersed genetic architectures of traits associated with reproductive barriers suggest gradual divergence or multifarious selection. Coupling of the underlying QTLs likely promoted divergence with gene flow in this system. The low congruence of QTLs between the two crosses further points to variable and possibly redundant genetic architectures of traits associated with reproductive barriers, with important implications for the evolutionary dynamics of divergence and speciation.

Cytogenetic comparison of heteromorphic and homomorphic sex chromosomes in Coccinia (Cucurbitaceae) points to sex chromosome turnover

Our understanding of the evolution of plant sex chromosomes is increasing rapidly due to high-throughput sequencing data and phylogenetic and molecular-cytogenetic approaches that make it possible to infer the evolutionary direction and steps leading from homomorphic to heteromorphic sex chromosomes. Here, we focus on four species of Coccinia, a genus of 25 dioecious species, including Coccinia grandis, the species with the largest known plant Y chromosome. Based on a phylogeny for the genus, we selected three species close to C. grandis to test the distribution of eight repetitive elements including two satellites, and several plastid and mitochondrial probes, that we had previously found to have distinct accumulation patterns in the C. grandis genome. Additionally, we determined C-values and performed immunostaining experiments with (peri-)centromere-specific antibodies on two species (for comparison with C. grandis). In spite of no microscopic chromosomal heteromorphism, single pairs of chromosomes in male cells of all three species accumulate some of the very same repeats that are enriched on the C. grandis Y chromosome, pointing to either old (previous) sex chromosomes or incipient (newly arising) ones, that is, to sex chromosome turnover. A 144-bp centromeric satellite repeat (CgCent) that characterizes all C. grandis chromosomes except the Y is highly abundant in all centromeric regions of the other species, indicating that the centromeric sequence of the Y chromosome diverged very recently.

Evolution of sex-biased gene expression in a dioecious plant

Separate sexes and sex-biased gene expression have repeatedly evolved in animals and plants, but the underlying changes in gene expression remain unknown. Here, we studied a pair of plant species, one in which separate sexes and sex chromosomes evolved recently and one which maintained hermaphrodite flowers resembling the ancestral state, to reconstruct expression changes associated with the evolution of dioecy. We found that sex-biased gene expression has evolved in autosomal and sex-linked genes in the dioecious species. Most expression changes relative to hermaphrodite flowers occurred in females rather than males, with higher and lower expression in females leading to female-biased and male-biased expression, respectively. Expression changes were more common in genes located on the sex chromosomes than the autosomes and led to feminization of the X chromosome and masculinization of the Y chromosome. Our results support a scenario in which sex-biased gene expression evolved during the evolution of dioecy to resolve intralocus sexual conflicts over the allocation of resources.

SEX-DETector: A Probabilistic Approach to Study Sex Chromosomes in Non-Model Organisms

We propose a probabilistic framework to infer autosomal and sex-linked genes from RNA-seq data of a cross for any sex chromosome type (XY, ZW, and UV). Sex chromosomes (especially the non-recombining and repeat-dense Y, W, U, and V) are notoriously difficult to sequence. Strategies have been developed to obtain partially assembled sex chromosome sequences. Most of them remain difficult to apply to numerous non-model organisms, either because they require a reference genome, or because they are designed for evolutionarily old systems. Sequencing a cross (parents and progeny) by RNA-seq to study the segregation of alleles and infer sex-linked genes is a cost-efficient strategy, which also provides expression level estimates. However, the lack of a proper statistical framework has limited a broader application of this approach. Tests on empirical Silene data show that our method identifies 20-35% more sex-linked genes than existing pipelines, while making reliable inferences for downstream analyses. Approximately 12 individuals are needed for optimal results based on simulations. For species with an unknown sex-determination system, the method can assess the presence and type (XY vs. ZW) of sex chromosomes through a model comparison strategy. The method is particularly well optimized for sex chromosomes of young or intermediate age, which are expected in thousands of yet unstudied lineages. Any organisms, including non-model ones for which nothing is known a priori, that can be bred in the lab, are suitable for our method. SEX-DETector and its implementation in a Galaxy workflow are made freely available.

Plant contributions to our understanding of sex chromosome evolution

A minority of angiosperms have male and female flowers separated in distinct individuals (dioecy), and most dioecious plants do not have cytologically different (heteromorphic) sex chromosomes. Plants nevertheless have several advantages for the study of sex chromosome evolution, as genetic sex determination has evolved repeatedly and is often absent in close relatives. I review sex-determining regions in non-model plant species, which may help us to understand when and how (and, potentially, test hypotheses about why) recombination suppression evolves within young sex chromosomes. I emphasize high-throughput sequencing approaches that are increasingly being applied to plants to test for non-recombining regions. These data are particularly illuminating when combined with sequence data that allow phylogenetic analyses, and estimates of when these regions evolved. Together with comparative genetic mapping, this has revealed that sex-determining loci and sex-linked regions evolved independently in many plant lineages, sometimes in closely related dioecious species, and often within the past few million years. In reviewing recent progress, I suggest areas for future work, such as the use of phylogenies to allow the informed choice of outgroup species suitable for inferring the directions of changes, including testing whether Y chromosome-like regions are undergoing genetic degeneration, a predicted consequence of losing recombination.

Diversity of sexual systems within different lineages of the genus Silene

Species and populations can be categorized by their sexual systems, depending on the spatial distribution of female and male reproductive structures within and among plants. Although a high diversity of sexual systems exists in Silene, their relative frequency at the genus and infrageneric level is unknown. Here, we carried out an extensive literature search for direct or indirect descriptions of sexual systems in Silene species. We found descriptions of sexual systems for 98 Silene species, where 63 and 35 correspond to the phylogenetically supported subgenera Silene and Behenantha, respectively. Hermaphroditism was the commonest sexual system (58.2 %), followed by dioecy (14.3 %), gynodioecy (13.3 %) and gynodioecy-gynomonoecy (i.e. hermaphroditic, female and gynomonoecious plants coexisting in the same population; 12.2 %). The presence of these sexual systems in both subgenera suggests their multiple origins. In 17 species, the description of sexual systems varied, and in most cases these differences corresponded to variations within or among populations. Interestingly, the poorly studied gynodioecy-gynomonoecy sexual system showed similar frequency to dioecy and gynodioecy in both subgenera. In addition, the incidence of gynodioecy-gynomonoecy was analysed in the species of section Psammophilae (Silene littorea, S. psammitis, S. adscendens and S. cambessedesii), in a survey of 26 populations across the distribution area of the species. The four species showed gynomonoecy-gynodioecy in most populations. Hermaphrodites were the most frequent morph, with a low number of females and gynomonoecious plants in all populations. The frequency of sexual morphs varied significantly among the studied populations but not among species. Female plants generally produced smaller numbers of flowers than hermaphroditic or gynomonoecious plants, and the percentages of female flowers per population were low. All these findings suggest that the gynodioecious-gynomonoecious sexual system in section Psammophilae is closer to hermaphroditism or gynomonoecy than gynodioecy.

Genetics of dioecy and causal sex chromosomes in plants

Dioecy (separate male and female individuals) ensures outcrossing and is more prevalent in animals than in plants. Although it is common in bryophytes and gymnosperms, only 5% of angiosperms are dioecious. In dioecious higher plants, flowers borne on male and female individuals are, respectively deficient in functional gynoecium and androecium. Dioecy is inherited via three sex chromosome systems: XX/XY, XX/X0 and WZ/ZZ, such that XX or WZ is female and XY, X0 or ZZ are males. The XX/XY system generates the rarer XX/X0 and WZ/ZZ systems. An autosome pair begets XY chromosomes. A recessive loss-of-androecium mutation (ana) creates X chromosome and a dominant gynoecium-suppressing (GYS) mutation creates Y chromosome. The ana/ANA and gys/GYS loci are in the sex-determining region (SDR) of the XY pair. Accumulation of inversions, deleterious mutations and repeat elements, especially transposons, in the SDR of Y suppresses recombination between X and Y in SDR, making Y labile and increasingly degenerate and heteromorphic from X. Continued recombination between X and Y in their pseudoautosomal region located at the ends of chromosomal arms allows survival of the degenerated Y and of the species. Dioecy is presumably a component of the evolutionary cycle for the origin of new species. Inbred hermaphrodite species assume dioecy. Later they suffer degenerate-Y-led population regression. Cross-hybridization between such extinguishing species and heterologous species, followed by genome duplication of segregants from hybrids, give rise to new species.

An angiosperm-wide analysis of the gynodioecy-dioecy pathway

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

About 6 % of an estimated total of 240 000 species of angiosperms are dioecious. The main precursors of this sexual system are thought to be monoecy and gynodioecy. A previous angiosperm-wide study revealed that many dioecious species have evolved through the monoecy pathway; some case studies and a large body of theoretical research also provide evidence in support of the gynodioecy pathway. If plants have evolved through the gynodioecy pathway, gynodioecious and dioecious species should co-occur in the same genera. However, to date, no large-scale analysis has been conducted to determine the prevalence of the gynodioecy pathway in angiosperms. In this study, this gap in knowledge was addressed by performing an angiosperm-wide survey in order to test for co-occurrence as evidence of the gynodioecy pathway.

METHODS

Data from different sources were compiled to obtain (to our knowledge) the largest dataset on gynodioecy available, with 275 genera that include at least one gynodioecious species. This dataset was combined with a dioecy dataset from the literature, and a study was made of how often dioecious and gynodioecious species could be found in the same genera using a contingency table framework.

KEY RESULTS

It was found that, overall, angiosperm genera with both gynodioecious and dioecious species occur more frequently than expected, in agreement with the gynodioecy pathway. Importantly, this trend holds when studying different classes separately (or sub-classes, orders and families), suggesting that the gynodioecy pathway is not restricted to a few taxa but may instead be widespread in angiosperms.

CONCLUSIONS

This work complements that previously carried out on the monoecy pathway and suggests that gynodioecy is also a common pathway in angiosperms. The results also identify angiosperm families where some (or all) dioecious species may have evolved from gynodioecious precursors. These families could be the targets of future small-scale studies on transitions to dioecy taking phylogeny explicitly into account.

Identification of internal reference genes for gene expression normalization between the two sexes in dioecious white Campion

Quantitative real time (qRT)-PCR is a precise and efficient method for studying gene expression changes between two states of interest, and is frequently used for validating interesting gene expression patterns in candidate genes initially identified in genome-wide expression analyses, such as RNA-seq experiments. For an adequate normalisation of qRT-PCR data, it is essential to have reference genes available whose expression intensities are constant among the different states of interest. In this study we present and validate a catalogue of traditional and newly identified reference genes that were selected from RNA-seq data from multiple individuals from the dioecious plant Silene latifolia with the aim of studying gene expression differences between the two sexes in both reproductive and vegetative tissues. The catalogue contains more than 15 reference genes with both stable expression intensities and a range of expression intensities in flower buds and leaf tissues. These reference genes were used to normalize expression differences between reproductive and vegetative tissues in eight candidate genes with sex-biased expression. Our results suggest a trend towards a reduced sex-bias in sex-linked gene expression in vegetative tissues. In this study, we report on the systematic identification and validation of internal reference genes for adequate normalization of qRT-PCR-based analyses of gene expression differences between the two sexes in S. latifolia. We also show how RNA-seq data can be used efficiently to identify suitable reference genes in a wide diversity of species.

Breakdown of dioecy: models where males acquire cosexual functions

We have reanalyzed models of the breakdown of dioecy involving modified males to investigate female frequencies in the resulting gynodioecious populations. We extend and simplify previous treatments to deal with biologically relevant factors including pollen limitation, partial selfing of modified males, and inbreeding depression, to highlight the different empirically detectable advantages that may be gained by modified males that can reproduce as cosexes (i.e., can produce some seeds); these include "inconstant males," which can sometimes display some female function. Males reproducing wholly or occasionally as cosexual phenotypes can gain the transmission advantage of selfing, if partial self-fertilization is possible, and from reproductive assurance when pollen is limiting. If, because of resource limitation, such cosexual phenotypes produce fewer ovules than females, their nonselfed ovules will require a lower pollen pool size for full seed-set, compared with females. We investigate the conditions for these benefits to allow modified males to invade dioecious populations. Sometimes, such invasion leads to replacement of dioecy by the cosexual type, but sometimes the breakdown populations remain sexually polymorphic. When competition occurs between genotypes in the pollen load on a flower, high female frequencies can arise when Y chromosome-bearing pollen competes poorly with X pollen.

The roles of female and hermaphroditic flowers in the gynodioecious-gynomonoecious Silene littorea: insights into the phenology of sex expression

Some gynodioecious species have intermediate individuals that bear both female and hermaphroditic flowers. This phenomenon is known as a gynodioecious-gynomonoecious sexual system. Gender expression in such species has received little attention in the past, and the phenologies of male and female functions have also yet to be explored. In this study, we examined variations in gender patterns, their effects on female reproductive success and sex expression in depth throughout the flowering period in two populations. The studied populations of Silene littorea contained mostly gynomonoecious plants and the number of pure females was very low. The gynomonoecious plants showed high variability in the total proportion of female flowers. In addition, the proportion of female flowers in each plant varied widely across the flowering season. Although there was a trend towards maleness, our measures of functional gender suggested that most plants transmit their genes via both pollen and ovules. Fruit set and seed set were not significantly different among populations; in contrast, flower production significantly varied between the two populations - and among plants - with consequent variation in total seed production. Conversely, gender and sex expression were similar in both populations. Plants with higher phenotypic femaleness did not have higher fruit set, seed set or total female fecundity. The mating environment fluctuated little across the flowering period, but fluctuations were higher in the population with low flower production. We therefore conclude that the high proportion of gynomonoecious individuals in our studied populations of S. littorea may be advantageous for the species, providing the benefits of both hermaphroditic and female flowers.

Evolution of sex determination systems with heterogametic males and females in silene

The plant genus Silene has become a model for evolutionary studies of sex chromosomes and sex-determining mechanisms. A recent study performed in Silene colpophylla showed that dioecy and the sex chromosomes in this species evolved independently from those in Silene latifolia, the most widely studied dioecious Silene species. The results of this study show that the sex-determining system in Silene otites, a species related to S. colpophylla, is based on female heterogamety, a sex determination system that is unique among the Silene species studied to date. Our phylogenetic data support the placing of S. otites and S. colpophylla in the subsection Otites and the analysis of ancestral states suggests that the most recent common ancestor of S. otites and S. colpophylla was most probably dioecious. These observations imply that a switch from XX/XY sex determination to a ZZ/ZW system (or vice versa) occurred in the subsection Otites. This is the first report of two different types of heterogamety within one plant genus of this mostly nondioecious plant family.

Expansion of the pseudo-autosomal region and ongoing recombination suppression in the Silene latifolia sex chromosomes

There are two very interesting aspects to the evolution of sex chromosomes: what happens after recombination between these chromosome pairs stops and why suppressed recombination evolves. The former question has been intensively studied in a diversity of organisms, but the latter has been studied largely theoretically. To obtain empirical data, we used codominant genic markers in genetic mapping of the dioecious plant Silene latifolia, together with comparative mapping of S. latifolia sex-linked genes in S. vulgaris (a related hermaphrodite species without sex chromosomes). We mapped 29 S. latifolia fully sex-linked genes (including 21 newly discovered from transcriptome sequencing), plus 6 genes in a recombining pseudo-autosomal region (PAR) whose genetic map length is ∼25 cM in both male and female meiosis, suggesting that the PAR may contain many genes. Our comparative mapping shows that most fully sex-linked genes in S. latifolia are located on a single S. vulgaris linkage group and were probably inherited from a single autosome of an ancestor. However, unexpectedly, our maps suggest that the S. latifolia PAR region expanded through translocation events. Some genes in these regions still recombine in S. latifolia, but some genes from both addition events are now fully sex-linked. Recombination suppression is therefore still ongoing in S. latifolia, and multiple recombination suppression events have occurred in a timescale of few million years, much shorter than the timescale of formation of the most recent evolutionary strata of mammal and bird sex chromosomes.

Disentangling the effects of mating systems and mutation rates on cytoplasmic [correction of cytoplamic] diversity in gynodioecious Silene nutans and dioecious Silene otites

Many flowering plant species exhibit a variety of distinct sexual morphs, the two most common cases being the co-occurrence of females and males (dioecy) or the co-occurrence of hermaphrodites and females (gynodioecy). In this study, we compared DNA sequence variability of the three genomes (nuclear, mitochondrial and chloroplastic) of a gynodioecious species, Silene nutans, with that of a closely related dioecious species, Silene otites. In the light of theoretical models, we expect cytoplasmic diversity to differ between the two species due to the selective dynamics that acts on cytoplasmic genomes in gynodioecious species: under an epidemic scenario, the gynodioecious species is expected to exhibit lower cytoplasmic diversity than the dioecious species, while the opposite is expected in the case of balancing selection maintaining sterility cytoplasms in the gynodioecious species. We found no difference between the species for nuclear gene diversity, but, for the cytoplasmic loci, the gynodioecious S. nutans had more haplotypes, and higher nucleotide diversity, than the dioecious relative, S. otites, even though the latter has a relatively high rate of mitochondrial synonymous substitutions, and therefore presumably a higher mutation rate. Therefore, as the mitochondrial mutation rate cannot account for the higher cytoplasmic diversity found in S. nutans, our findings support the hypothesis that gynodioecy in S. nutans has been maintained by balancing selection rather than by epidemic-like dynamics.

Plant sex chromosome evolution

It is now well established that plants have an important place in studies of sex chromosome evolution because of the repeated independent evolution of separate sexes and sex chromosomes. There has been considerable recent progress in studying plant sex chromosomes. In this review, I focus on how these recent studies have helped clarify or answer several important questions about sex chromosome evolution, and I shall also try to clarify some common misconceptions. I also outline future work that will be needed to make further progress, including testing some important ideas by genetic, molecular, and developmental approaches. Systems with different ages can clearly help show the time course of events during changes from an ancestral co-sexual state (hermaphroditism or monoecy), and I will also explain how different questions can be studied in lineages whose dioecy or sex chromosomes evolved at different times in the past.

Patterns of molecular evolution in dioecious and non-dioecious Silene

Dioecy (i.e. having separate sexes) is a rather rare breeding system in flowering plants. Such rareness may result from a high probability of extinction in dioecious species because of less efficient dispersal and the costs of sexual selection, which are expected to harm dioecious species' survival on the long term. These handicaps should decrease the effective population size (Ne) of dioecious species, which in turn should reduce the efficacy of selection. Moreover, sexual selection in dioecious species is expected to specifically affect some genes, which will evolve under positive selection. The relative contribution of these effects is currently unknown and we tried to disentangle them by comparing sequence evolution between dioecious and non-dioecious species in the Silene genus (Caryophyllaceae), where dioecy has evolved at least twice. For the dioecious species in the section Melandrium, where dioecy is the oldest, we found a global reduction of purifying selection, while on some, male-biased genes, positive selection was found. For section Otites, where dioecy evolved more recently, we found no significant differences between dioecious and non-dioecious species. Our results are consistent with the view that dioecy is an evolutionary dead end in flowering plants, although other scenarios for explaining reduced Ne cannot be ruled out. Our results also show that contrasting forces act on the genomes of dioecious plants, and suggest that some time is required before the genome of such plants bears the footprints of dioecy.

Identification of white campion (Silene latifolia) guaiacol O-methyltransferase involved in the biosynthesis of veratrole, a key volatile for pollinator attraction

BACKGROUND

Silene latifolia and its pollinator, the noctuid moth Hadena bicruris, represent an open nursery pollination system wherein floral volatiles, especially veratrole (1, 2-dimethoxybenzene), lilac aldehydes, and phenylacetaldehyde are of key importance for floral signaling. Despite the important role of floral scent in ensuring reproductive success in S. latifolia, the molecular basis of scent biosynthesis in this species has not yet been investigated.

RESULTS

We isolated two full-length cDNAs from S. latifolia that show similarity to rose orcinol O-methyltransferase. Biochemical analysis showed that both S. latifolia guaiacol O-methyltransferase1 (SlGOMT1) &S. latifolia guaiacol O-methyltransferase2 (SlGOMT2) encode proteins that catalyze the methylation of guaiacol to form veratrole. A large Km value difference between SlGOMT1 (~10 μM) and SlGOMT2 (~501 μM) resulted that SlGOMT1 is 31-fold more catalytically efficient than SlGOMT2. qRT-PCR expression analysis showed that the SlGOMT genes are specifically expressed in flowers and male S. latifolia flowers had 3- to 4-folds higher level of GOMT gene transcripts than female flower tissues. Two related cDNAs, S. dioica O-methyltransferase1 (SdOMT1) and S. dioica O-methyltransferase2 (SdOMT2), were also obtained from the sister species Silene dioica, but the proteins they encode did not methylate guaiacol, consistent with the lack of veratrole emission in the flowers of this species. Our evolutionary analysis uncovered that SlGOMT1 and SlGOMT2 genes evolved under positive selection, whereas SdOMT1 and SdOMT2 genes show no evidence for selection.

CONCLUSIONS

Altogether, we report the identification and functional characterization of the gene, SlGOMT1 that efficiently catalyzes veratrole formation, whereas another copy of this gene with only one amino acid difference, SlGOMT2 was found to be less efficient for veratrole synthesis in S. latifolia.

Rapid de novo evolution of X chromosome dosage compensation in Silene latifolia, a plant with young sex chromosomes

Silene latifolia is a dioecious plant with heteromorphic sex chromosomes that have originated only ∼10 million years ago and is a promising model organism to study sex chromosome evolution in plants. Previous work suggests that S. latifolia XY chromosomes have gradually stopped recombining and the Y chromosome is undergoing degeneration as in animal sex chromosomes. However, this work has been limited by the paucity of sex-linked genes available. Here, we used 35 Gb of RNA-seq data from multiple males (XY) and females (XX) of an S. latifolia inbred line to detect sex-linked SNPs and identified more than 1,700 sex-linked contigs (with X-linked and Y-linked alleles). Analyses using known sex-linked and autosomal genes, together with simulations indicate that these newly identified sex-linked contigs are reliable. Using read numbers, we then estimated expression levels of X-linked and Y-linked alleles in males and found an overall trend of reduced expression of Y-linked alleles, consistent with a widespread ongoing degeneration of the S. latifolia Y chromosome. By comparing expression intensities of X-linked alleles in males and females, we found that X-linked allele expression increases as Y-linked allele expression decreases in males, which makes expression of sex-linked contigs similar in both sexes. This phenomenon is known as dosage compensation and has so far only been observed in evolutionary old animal sex chromosome systems. Our results suggest that dosage compensation has evolved in plants and that it can quickly evolve de novo after the origin of sex chromosomes.