Temperature-dependent turnovers in sex-determination mechanisms: a quantitative model.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_B977C469C445
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Temperature-dependent turnovers in sex-determination mechanisms: a quantitative model.
Journal
Evolution
Author(s)
Grossen C., Neuenschwander S., Perrin N.
ISSN
1558-5646[electronic], 0014-3820[linking]
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2011
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
65
Number
1
Pages
64-78
Language
english
Abstract
Sex determination is often seen as a dichotomous process: individual sex is assumed to be determined either by genetic (genotypic sex determination, GSD) or by environmental factors (environmental sex determination, ESD), most often temperature (temperature sex determination, TSD). We endorse an alternative view, which sees GSD and TSD as the ends of a continuum. Both effects interact a priori, because temperature can affect gene expression at any step along the sex-determination cascade. We propose to define sex-determination systems at the population- (rather than individual) level, via the proportion of variance in phenotypic sex stemming from genetic versus environmental factors, and we formalize this concept in a quantitative-genetics framework. Sex is seen as a threshold trait underlain by a liability factor, and reaction norms allow modeling interactions between genotypic and temperature effects (seen as the necessary consequences of thermodynamic constraints on the underlying physiological processes). As this formalization shows, temperature changes (due to e.g., climatic changes or range expansions) are expected to provoke turnovers in sex-determination mechanisms, by inducing large-scale sex reversal and thereby sex-ratio selection for alternative sex-determining genes. The frequency of turnovers and prevalence of homomorphic sex chromosomes in cold-blooded vertebrates might thus directly relate to the temperature dependence in sex-determination mechanisms.
Keywords
Ectothermy, ESD, GSD, quantitative genetics, sex chromosomes, sex reversal, temperature, threshold trait
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
27/05/2010 7:53
Last modification date
20/08/2019 15:27
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