Sci Data. 2014 Jun 24;1:140015. doi: 10.1038/sdata.2014.15. eCollection 2014.
The vast majority of eukaryotic organisms reproduce sexually, yet the nature of the sexual system and the mechanism of sex determination often vary remarkably, even among closely related species. Some species of animals and plants change sex across their lifespan, some contain hermaphrodites as well as males and females, some determine sex with highly differentiated chromosomes, while others determine sex according to their environment. Testing evolutionary hypotheses regarding the causes and consequences of this diversity requires interspecific data placed in a phylogenetic context. Such comparative studies have been hampered by the lack of accessible data listing sexual systems and sex determination mechanisms across the eukaryotic tree of life. Here, we describe a database developed to facilitate access to sexual system and sex chromosome information, with data on sexual systems from 11,038 plant, 705 fish, 173 amphibian, 593 non-avian reptilian, 195 avian, 479 mammalian, and 11,556 invertebrate species.
绝大多数真核生物通过有性繁殖进行繁殖，但性系统的性质和性别决定的机制往往差异很大，即使在密切相关的物种之间也是如此。一些动物和植物物种在其生命周期中会改变性别，一些物种同时具有雌雄同体和雌雄异体，一些物种根据高度分化的染色体来决定性别，而另一些物种则根据环境来决定性别。测试关于这种多样性的原因和后果的进化假设需要将种间数据置于系统发育背景下。这些比较研究受到缺乏可访问的数据的阻碍，这些数据列出了整个真核生物进化树上的性系统和性别决定机制。在这里，我们描述了一个数据库的开发，以方便访问性系统和性染色体信息，该数据库的数据包括 11038 种植物、705 种鱼类、173 种两栖动物、593 种非鸟类爬行动物、195 种鸟类、479 种哺乳动物和 11556 种无脊椎动物的性系统信息。
