Department of Biology, Institute of Zoology, Universität Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King Platz 3, 20146, Hamburg, Germany.
Zoological Institute and Museum, Research Group General and Systematic Zoology, Universität Greifswald, Loitzer Straße 26, 17489, Greifswald, Germany.
Dev Genes Evol. 2020 Mar;230(2):155-172. doi: 10.1007/s00427-020-00657-6. Epub 2020 Feb 12.
Sexual reproduction is pervasive in animals and has led to the evolution of sexual dimorphism. In most animals, males and females show marked differences in primary and secondary sexual traits. The formation of sex-specific organs and eventually sex-specific behaviors is defined during the development of an organism. Sex determination processes have been extensively studied in a few well-established model organisms. While some key molecular regulators are conserved across animals, the initiation of sex determination is highly diverse. To reveal the mechanisms underlying the development of sexual dimorphism and to identify the evolutionary forces driving the evolution of different sexes, sex determination mechanisms must thus be studied in detail in many different animal species beyond the typical model systems. In this perspective article, we argue that spiders represent an excellent group of animals in which to study sex determination mechanisms. We show that spiders are sexually dimorphic in various morphological, behavioral, and life history traits. The availability of an increasing number of genomic and transcriptomic resources and functional tools provides a great starting point to scrutinize the extensive sexual dimorphism present in spiders on a mechanistic level. We provide an overview of the current knowledge of sex determination in spiders and propose approaches to reveal the molecular and genetic underpinnings of sexual dimorphism in these exciting animals.
有性生殖在动物中普遍存在，并导致了性二态性的进化。在大多数动物中，雄性和雌性在主要和次要的性特征上表现出明显的差异。在生物体的发育过程中，形成了性器官和最终的性行为特异性。性别决定过程在少数几个已建立的模式生物中得到了广泛研究。虽然一些关键的分子调节剂在动物中是保守的，但性别决定的启动是高度多样化的。为了揭示性二态性发育的机制，并确定驱动不同性别的进化的进化力量，因此必须在许多不同的动物物种中详细研究性别决定机制，而不仅仅是典型的模式系统。在这篇观点文章中，我们认为蜘蛛是研究性别决定机制的绝佳动物群体。我们表明，蜘蛛在各种形态、行为和生活史特征上存在性二态性。越来越多的基因组和转录组资源以及功能工具的可用性为在机制水平上仔细研究蜘蛛中存在的广泛的性二态性提供了一个很好的起点。我们概述了目前对蜘蛛性别决定的了解，并提出了一些方法来揭示这些令人兴奋的动物中性二态性的分子和遗传基础。
