Evidence for degeneration of the Y chromosome in the dioecious plant Silene latifolia.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_AF81CAB28AB7
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Title
Evidence for degeneration of the Y chromosome in the dioecious plant Silene latifolia.
Journal
Current Biology
Author(s)
Marais G.A., Nicolas M., Bergero R., Chambrier P., Kejnovsky E., Monéger F., Hobza R., Widmer A., Charlesworth D.
ISSN
0960-9822
Publication state
Published
Issued date
04/2008
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
18
Number
7
Pages
545-549
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't - Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
The human Y--probably because of its nonrecombining nature--has lost 97% of its genes since X and Y chromosomes started to diverge [1, 2]. There are clear signs of degeneration in the Drosophila miranda neoY chromosome (an autosome fused to the Y chromosome), with neoY genes showing faster protein evolution [3-6], accumulation of unpreferred codons [6], more insertions of transposable elements [5, 7], and lower levels of expression [8] than neoX genes. In the many other taxa with sex chromosomes, Y degeneration has hardly been studied. In plants, many genes are expressed in pollen [9], and strong pollen selection may oppose the degeneration of plant Y chromosomes [10]. Silene latifolia is a dioecious plant with young heteromorphic sex chromosomes [11, 12]. Here we test whether the S. latifolia Y chromosome is undergoing genetic degeneration by analyzing seven sex-linked genes. S. latifolia Y-linked genes tend to evolve faster at the protein level than their X-linked homologs, and they have lower expression levels. Several Y gene introns have increased in length, with evidence for transposable-element accumulation. We detect signs of degeneration in most of the Y-linked gene sequences analyzed, similar to those of animal Y-linked and neo-Y chromosome genes.
Keywords
Animals, Chromosomes, Plant, DNA Transposable Elements, Evolution, Molecular, Gene Expression, Genes, Plant, Introns, Silene/genetics, Y Chromosome
Pubmed
Open Access
Yes
Create date
13/03/2008 7:18
Last modification date
20/08/2019 15:18
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