The Y chromosome of the Okinawa spiny rat, Tokudaia muenninki, was rescued through fusion with an autosome.

The genus Tokudaia comprises three species, two of which have lost their Y chromosome and have an XO/XO sex chromosome constitution. Although Tokudaia muenninki (Okinawa spiny rat) retains the Y chromosome, both sex chromosomes are unusually large. We conducted a molecular cytogenetic analysis to characterize the sex chromosomes of T. muenninki. Using cross-species fluorescence in situ hybridization (Zoo-FISH), we found that both short arms of the T. muenninki sex chromosomes were painted by probes from mouse chromosomes 11 and 16. Comparative genomic hybridization analysis was unable to detect sex-specific regions in the sex chromosomes because both sex probes highlighted the large heterochromatic blocks on the Y chromosome as well as five autosomal pairs. We then performed comparative FISH mapping using 29 mouse complementary DNA (cDNA) clones of the 22 X-linked genes and the seven genes linked to mouse chromosome 11 (whose homologue had fused to the sex chromosomes), and FISH mapping using two T. muenninki cDNA clones of the Y-linked genes. This analysis revealed that the ancestral gene order on the long arm of the X chromosome and the centromeric region of the short arm of the Y chromosome were conserved. Whereas six of the mouse chromosome 11 genes were also mapped to Xp and Yp, in addition, one gene, CBX2, was also mapped to Xp, Yp, and chromosome 14 in T. muenninki. CBX2 is the candidate gene for the novel sex determination system in the two other species of Tokudaia, which lack a Y chromosome and SRY gene. Overall, these results indicated that the Y chromosome of T. muenninki avoided a loss event, which occurred in an ancestral lineage of T. osimensis and T. tokunoshimensis, through fusion with an autosome. Despite retaining the Y chromosome, sex determination in T. muenninki might not follow the usual mammalian pattern and deserves further investigation.