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Hobza R, Bačovský V, Čegan R, Horáková L, Hubinský M, Janíček T, Janoušek B, Jedlička P, Kružlicová J, Kubát Z, Rodríguez Lorenzo JL, Novotná P, Hudzieczek V. Sexy ways: the methodical approaches to study plant sex chromosomes. J Exp Bot 2024:erae173. [PMID: 38652048 DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erae173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2023] [Indexed: 04/25/2024]
Abstract
Sex chromosomes have evolved in many plant species with separate sexes. Current plant research is shifting from examining the structure of sex chromosomes to exploring their functional aspects. New studies are progressively unveiling the specific genetic and epigenetic mechanisms responsible for shaping distinct sexes in plants. While the fundamental methods of molecular biology and genomics are generally employed for the analysis of sex chromosomes, it is often necessary to modify classical procedures not only to simplify and expedite analyses but sometimes to make them possible at all. In this review, we demonstrate how, at the level of structural and functional genetics, cytogenetics, and bioinformatics, it is essential to adapt established procedures for sex chromosome analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roman Hobza
- Department of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Kralovopolska 135, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Václav Bačovský
- Department of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Kralovopolska 135, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Radim Čegan
- Department of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Kralovopolska 135, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Lucie Horáková
- Department of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Kralovopolska 135, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Marcel Hubinský
- Department of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Kralovopolska 135, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Tomáš Janíček
- Department of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Kralovopolska 135, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Bohuslav Janoušek
- Department of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Kralovopolska 135, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Pavel Jedlička
- Department of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Kralovopolska 135, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Jana Kružlicová
- Department of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Kralovopolska 135, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Zdeněk Kubát
- Department of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Kralovopolska 135, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - José Luis Rodríguez Lorenzo
- Department of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Kralovopolska 135, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Pavla Novotná
- Department of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Kralovopolska 135, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Vojtěch Hudzieczek
- Department of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Kralovopolska 135, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic
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Sacchi B, Humphries Z, Kružlicová J, Bodláková M, Pyne C, Choudhury BI, Gong Y, Bačovský V, Hobza R, Barrett SCH, Wright SI. Phased Assembly of Neo-Sex Chromosomes Reveals Extensive Y Degeneration and Rapid Genome Evolution in Rumex hastatulus. Mol Biol Evol 2024; 41:msae074. [PMID: 38606901 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msae074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2023] [Revised: 01/31/2024] [Accepted: 04/05/2024] [Indexed: 04/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Y chromosomes are thought to undergo progressive degeneration due to stepwise loss of recombination and subsequent reduction in selection efficiency. However, the timescales and evolutionary forces driving degeneration remain unclear. To investigate the evolution of sex chromosomes on multiple timescales, we generated a high-quality phased genome assembly of the massive older (<10 MYA) and neo (<200,000 yr) sex chromosomes in the XYY cytotype of the dioecious plant Rumex hastatulus and a hermaphroditic outgroup Rumex salicifolius. Our assemblies, supported by fluorescence in situ hybridization, confirmed that the neo-sex chromosomes were formed by two key events: an X-autosome fusion and a reciprocal translocation between the homologous autosome and the Y chromosome. The enormous sex-linked regions of the X (296 Mb) and two Y chromosomes (503 Mb) both evolved from large repeat-rich genomic regions with low recombination; however, the complete loss of recombination on the Y still led to over 30% gene loss and major rearrangements. In the older sex-linked region, there has been a significant increase in transposable element abundance, even into and near genes. In the neo-sex-linked regions, we observed evidence of extensive rearrangements without gene degeneration and loss. Overall, we inferred significant degeneration during the first 10 million years of Y chromosome evolution but not on very short timescales. Our results indicate that even when sex chromosomes emerge from repetitive regions of already-low recombination, the complete loss of recombination on the Y chromosome still leads to a substantial increase in repetitive element content and gene degeneration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bianca Sacchi
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Zoë Humphries
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Jana Kružlicová
- Department of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
- National Centre for Biomolecular Research, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Markéta Bodláková
- Department of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Cassandre Pyne
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Baharul I Choudhury
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
- Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
| | - Yunchen Gong
- Centre for Analysis of Genome Evolution and Function, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Václav Bačovský
- Department of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Roman Hobza
- Department of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Spencer C H Barrett
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Stephen I Wright
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
- Centre for Analysis of Genome Evolution and Function, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
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