Evolution of sex determining genes in fishes

鱼类性别决定基因的进化

• 批准号: 243018336
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Manfred Schartl, Ph.D.
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institute of Neuroscience
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2012-12-31 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/243018336?language=en
• 关键词: Evolution; sex; determining; genes; fishes

Sexual reproduction is one of the most highly conserved processes in evolution and implicates many fields of biology but also breeding or human health and society. The genetic and cell biological mechanisms making the decision whether the undifferentiated gonad of the embryo develops either towards male or female are manifold and quite different. Sex determining (SD) mechanism range from environmental to simple or complex genetic mechanisms and have evolved repeatedly and independently. In species with genetic sex determination, master SD genes on sex chromosomes drive gonadal differentiation by switching on a developmental program that ultimately leads to testis or ovary differentiation. Very few sex-determining genes have been so far identified in fish, and in animals in general. Fish are uniquely suited to study the evolution of sex determination. Comprising about half of the about 60.000 species of vertebrates, fish show the greatest variety of sex determination mechanisms including species with either environmental or genetic sex determination. Even those few known SD genes are apparently not conserved over a larger number of related orders, families, genera or even species. This frequent evolutionary turnover of SD genes may be explained by a large diversity of master sex regulators. This project has thus two major objectives: (1) To screen for potential sex-determining genes in many fish species; (2) To demonstrate the role of identified genes as master sex determinants in a few selected species. To address these questions, we have developed a strategy (Rad-Sex) that makes use of Next Generation Sequencing technology to identify markers that define sex specific segments of the male or female genome. The obtained markers will be used to isolate candidates for SD genes from these regions. This approach will be carried out by screening in a first round 35 species representing major branches of the fish tree of life. From these we will then take the most promising 15 species to find candidate SD genes. Those will be further evaluated and finally a selection of 3 genes will be taken to functional characterization. The finding of new master SD genes will be of major importance taking into account the very low number of vertebrate species, in which such genes have been characterized. From a comparative point of view, this project will also have a great impact on what is already known on the evolution of genetic sex determination in vertebrates in general and more specifically in fishes, in which the questions about the evolutionary significance of the high diversity of master sex-determining genes and the genomic mechanisms allowing this rapid turnovers are largely unanswered. This project will also have important practical outcomes for molecular sexing as a tool for a better control of sex determination in aquaculture and for ecology and ecotoxicology research in economically or environmentally very important species investigated here.

有性生殖是进化中最高度保守的过程之一，涉及生物学的许多领域，也涉及育种或人类健康和社会。决定胚胎未分化性腺发育为雄性还是雌性的遗传和细胞生物学机制是多种多样且截然不同的。性别决定（SD）机制范围从环境机制到简单或复杂的遗传机制，并且反复独立地进化。在具有遗传性别决定的物种中，性染色体上的主 SD 基因通过启动最终导致睾丸或卵巢分化的发育程序来驱动性腺分化。迄今为止，在鱼类和一般动物中，很少发现性别决定基因。鱼类特别适合研究性别决定的进化。鱼类是约 60,000 种脊椎动物中的约一半，其性别决定机制最为多样，其中包括具有环境或遗传性别决定作用的物种。即使是那些少数已知的 SD 基因，在大量相关目、科、属甚至物种中显然也不保守。 SD 基因的这种频繁的进化更替可能是由于主性调节因子的多样性所致。因此，该项目有两个主要目标：（1）筛选许多鱼类中潜在的性别决定基因； (2) 证明所鉴定的基因在一些选定物种中作为主要性别决定因素的作用。为了解决这些问题，我们开发了一种策略 (Rad-Sex)，利用下一代测序技术来识别定义男性或女性基因组性别特定片段的标记。获得的标记将用于从这些区域分离 SD 基因的候选者。该方法将在第一轮中筛选代表鱼类生命之树主要分支的 35 个物种。然后我们将从这些最有希望的 15 个物种中寻找候选 SD 基因。这些将被进一步评估，最终选择 3 个基因进行功能表征。 考虑到已表征此类基因的脊椎动物物种数量非常少，新的主 SD 基因的发现将具有重大意义。从比较的角度来看，该项目还将对脊椎动物，更具体地说是鱼类的遗传性别决定进化的已知知识产生重大影响，其中关于主要性别决定基因的高度多样性的进化意义以及允许这种快速更替的基因组机制的问题在很大程度上尚未得到解答。该项目还将在分子性别鉴定方面产生重要的实际成果，作为更好地控制水产养殖性别决定的工具，以及对这里调查的经济或环境非常重要的物种进行生态学和生态毒理学研究。

项目成果

Dynamics of vertebrate sex chromosome evolution: from equal size to giants and dwarfs

• DOI: 10.1007/s00412-015-0569-y
• 发表时间: 2015-12
• 期刊: Chromosoma
• 影响因子: 1.6
• 作者: M. Schartl;M. Schmid;I. Nanda

The unusual rainbow trout sex determination gene hijacked the canonical vertebrate gonadal differentiation pathway

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1803826115
• 发表时间: 2018-12-11
• 期刊: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• 影响因子: 11.1
• 作者: Bertho, Sylvain;Herpin, Amaury;Guiguen, Yann
• 通讯作者: Guiguen, Yann

Independent Origin of XY and ZW Sex Determination Mechanisms in Mosquitofish Sister Species

• DOI: 10.1534/genetics.119.302698
• 发表时间: 2020-01-01
• 期刊: GENETICS
• 影响因子: 3.3
• 作者: Kottler, Verena A.;Feron, Romain;Schartl, Manfred
• 通讯作者: Schartl, Manfred

Identification of the master sex determining gene in Northern pike (Esox lucius) reveals restricted sex chromosome differentiation

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1008013
• 发表时间: 2019-02
• 期刊: PLoS Genetics
• 影响因子: 4.5
• 作者: Qiaowei Pan;Romain Feron;Ayaka Yano;R. Guyomard;E. Jouanno;E. Vigouroux;M. Wen;Jean-Mickaël Busnel-Jean-Mickaël-B