TY  - JOUR
A1  - Nanda, Indrajit
A1  - Schories, Susanne
A1  - Simeonov, Ivan
A1  - Adolfi, Mateus Contar
A1  - Du, Kang
A1  - Steinlein, Claus
A1  - Alsheimer, Manfred
A1  - Haaf, Thomas
A1  - Schartl, Manfred
T1  - Evolution of the degenerated Y-chromosome of the swamp guppy, Micropoecilia picta
JF  - Cells
N2  - The conspicuous colour sexual dimorphism of guppies has made them paradigmatic study objects for sex-linked traits and sex chromosome evolution. Both the X- and Y-chromosomes of the common guppy (Poecilia reticulata) are genetically active and homomorphic, with a large homologous part and a small sex specific region. This feature is considered to emulate the initial stage of sex chromosome evolution. A similar situation has been documented in the related Endler’s and Oropuche guppies (P. wingei, P. obscura) indicating a common origin of the Y in this group. A recent molecular study in the swamp guppy (Micropoecilia. picta) reported a low SNP density on the Y, indicating Y-chromosome deterioration. We performed a series of cytological studies on M. picta to show that the Y-chromosome is quite small compared to the X and has accumulated a high content of heterochromatin. Furthermore, the Y-chromosome stands out in displaying CpG clusters around the centromeric region. These cytological findings evidently illustrate that the Y-chromosome in M. picta is indeed highly degenerated. Immunostaining for SYCP3 and MLH1 in pachytene meiocytes revealed that a substantial part of the Y remains associated with the X. A specific MLH1 hotspot site was persistently marked at the distal end of the associated XY structure. These results unveil a landmark of a recombining pseudoautosomal region on the otherwise strongly degenerated Y chromosome of M. picta. Hormone treatments of females revealed that, unexpectedly, no sexually antagonistic color gene is Y-linked in M. picta. All these differences to the Poecilia group of guppies indicate that the trajectories associated with the evolution of sex chromosomes are not in parallel.
KW  - sex chromosomes
KW  - heterochromatin
KW  - Y chromosome degeneration
KW  - meiosis
KW  - synaptonemal complex
KW  - recombination
KW  - 5-methylcytosine
KW  - testosterone
KW  - sexual antagonistic genes
KW  - sex linked pigmentation pattern
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-267242
SN  - 2073-4409
VL  - 11
IS  - 7
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Dedukh, Dmitrij
A1  - Da Cruz, Irene
A1  - Kneitz, Susanne
A1  - Marta, Anatolie
A1  - Ormanns, Jenny
A1  - Tichopád, Tomáš
A1  - Lu, Yuan
A1  - Alsheimer, Manfred
A1  - Janko, Karel
A1  - Schartl, Manfred
T1  - Achiasmatic meiosis in the unisexual Amazon molly, Poecilia formosa
JF  - Chromosome Research
N2  - Unisexual reproduction, which generates clonal offspring, is an alternative strategy to sexual breeding and occurs even in vertebrates. A wide range of non-sexual reproductive modes have been described, and one of the least understood questions is how such pathways emerged and how they mechanistically proceed. The Amazon molly, Poecilia formosa, needs sperm from males of related species to trigger the parthenogenetic development of diploid eggs. However, the mechanism, of how the unreduced female gametes are produced, remains unclear. Cytological analyses revealed that the chromosomes of primary oocytes initiate pachytene but do not proceed to bivalent formation and meiotic crossovers. Comparing ovary transcriptomes of P. formosa and its sexual parental species revealed expression levels of meiosis-specific genes deviating from P. mexicana but not from P. latipinna. Furthermore, several meiosis genes show biased expression towards one of the two alleles from the parental genomes. We infer from our data that in the Amazon molly diploid oocytes are generated by apomixis due to a failure in the synapsis of homologous chromosomes. The fact that this failure is not reflected in the differential expression of known meiosis genes suggests the underlying molecular mechanism may be dysregulation on the protein level or misexpression of a so far unknown meiosis gene, and/or hybrid dysgenesis because of compromised interaction of proteins from diverged genomes.
KW  - meiosis
KW  - parthenogenesis
KW  - synaptonemal complex
KW  - recombination
KW  - crossing-over
KW  - achiasmatic
KW  - transcriptome
KW  - oogenesis
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-325128
VL  - 30
IS  - 4
ER  -