Refine
Has Fulltext
- yes (61)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (61) (remove)
Year of publication
- 2015 (61) (remove)
Document Type
- Journal article (61) (remove)
Language
- English (61)
Keywords
- membrane proteins (4)
- biodiversity (3)
- cancer (3)
- gene (3)
- in vitro (3)
- mushroom body (3)
- olfaction (3)
- Candida albicans (2)
- ELISPOT (2)
- RNA-Seq (2)
Institute
- Theodor-Boveri-Institut für Biowissenschaften (61) (remove)
Sonstige beteiligte Institutionen
ResearcherID
- D-1221-2009 (1)
Sex-specific markers are a prerequisite for understanding reproductive biology, genetic factors involved in sex differences, mechanisms of sex determination, and ultimately the evolution of sex chromosomes. The Western mosquitofish, Gambusia affinis, may be considered a model species for sex-chromosome evolution, as it displays female heterogamety (ZW/ZZ), and is also ecologically interesting as a worldwide invasive species. Here, de novo RNA-sequencing on the gonads of sexually mature G. affinis was used to identify contigs that were highly transcribed in females but not in males (i.e., transcripts with ovary-specific expression). Subsequently, 129 primer pairs spanning 79 contigs were tested by PCR to identify sex-specific transcripts. Of those primer pairs, one female-specific DNA marker was identified, Sanger sequenced and subsequently validated in 115 fish. Sequence analyses revealed a high similarity between the identified sex-specific marker and the 3' UTR of the aminomethyl transferase (amt) gene of the closely related platyfish (Xiphophorus maculatus). This is the first time that RNA-seq has been used to successfully characterize a sex-specific marker in a fish species in the absence of a genome map. Additionally, the identified sex-specific marker represents one of only a handful of such markers in fishes.