Marine Biosystems Research Center, Chiba University, Kamogawa, 299-5502, Japan.
J Phycol. 2021 Apr;57(2):447-453. doi: 10.1111/jpy.13128. Epub 2021 Mar 3.
There is little information available regarding genomic differences between sexes in ulvophycean green algae. The detection of these differences will enable the development of sex-discriminating molecular markers, which are useful for algae showing little apparent difference between sexes. In this study, we identified male- and female-specific DNA sequences in the ulvophycean marine green alga Monostroma angicava, which has a dioicous heteromorphic haplo-diplontic life cycle, via next-generation sequencing. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) showed that signals for the sex-specific sequences exist only in the nuclei of the corresponding sex, confirming the specificity of the sequences. Sex-specific molecular markers that targeted these sequences successfully distinguished the sex of gametophytes even in geographically distant populations, indicating that the sex-specific sequences are universal. These results consistently suggest that male and female gametophytes of M. angicava are genetically different, implying that sex may be determined genetically in this alga.
关于绿藻门石莼目的雌雄个体之间的基因组差异，目前相关信息较少。这些差异的检测将有助于开发性别区分的分子标记，这对于那些雌雄个体间差异不明显的藻类很有用。在这项研究中，我们通过下一代测序技术，在具有二倍体型雌雄异体生活史的绿藻门海洋绿藻石莼属的单种中鉴定出了雄性和雌性特异性 DNA 序列。荧光原位杂交（FISH）显示，这些性别特异性序列的信号仅存在于相应性别的核中，证实了序列的特异性。针对这些序列的性别特异性分子标记成功地区分了配子体的性别，即使在地理上相距较远的种群中也是如此，表明这些性别特异性序列是普遍存在的。这些结果一致表明，石莼属的雌雄配子体在遗传上是不同的，这意味着该藻类的性别可能是由遗传决定的。
