Demasculinization of the Anopheles gambiae X chromosome

Magnusson, Kalle, Lycett, Gareth ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2422-053X, Mendes, Antonio M, Lynd, Amy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6054-0525, Papathanos, Philippos-Aris, Crisanti, Andrea and Windbichler, Nikolai (2012) 'Demasculinization of the Anopheles gambiae X chromosome'. BMC Evolutionary Biology, Vol 12, Issue 1, p. 69.

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Abstract

Background: In a number of organisms sex-biased genes are non-randomly distributed between autosomes and the shared sex chromosome X (or Z). Studies on Anopheles gambiae have produced conflicting results regarding the underrepresentation of male-biased genes on the X chromosome and it is unclear to what extent sexual
antagonism, dosage compensation or X-inactivation in the male germline, the evolutionary forces that have been
suggested to affect the chromosomal distribution of sex-biased genes, are operational in Anopheles.

Results: We performed a meta-analysis of sex-biased gene expression in Anopheles gambiae which provides
evidence for a general underrepresentation of male-biased genes on the X-chromosome that increased in significance with the observed degree of sex-bias. A phylogenomic comparison between Drosophila melanogaster, Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus also indicates that the Anopheles X chromosome strongly disfavours the evolutionary conservation of male-biased expression and that novel male-biased genes are more likely to arise on autosomes. Finally, we demonstrate experimentally that transgenes situated on the Anopheles gambiae X chromosome are transcriptionally silenced in the male germline.

Conclusion: The data presented here support the hypothesis that the observed demasculinization of the Anopheles
X chromosome is driven by X-chromosome inactivation in the male germline and by sexual antagonism. The demasculinization appears to be the consequence of a loss of male-biased expression, rather than a failure in the
establishment or the extinction of male-biased genes.
Keywords: Anopheles gambiae, demasculinization, germline x-chromosome inactivation, sexual antagonism, dosage compensation.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	QU Biochemistry > Genetics > QU 470 Genetic structures QX Parasitology > Insects. Other Parasites > QX 510 Mosquitoes QX Parasitology > Insects. Other Parasites > QX 515 Anopheles QX Parasitology > Insects. Other Parasites > QX 525 Aedes QX Parasitology > Insects. Other Parasites > QX 530 Culex
Faculty: Department:	Biological Sciences > Vector Biology Department
Digital Object Identifer (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-12-69
Depositing User:	Users 183 not found.
Date Deposited:	24 Sep 2012 10:11
Last Modified:	22 Aug 2019 12:14
URI:	https://archive.lstmed.ac.uk/id/eprint/3031

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