Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland.
J Evol Biol. 2022 Dec;35(12):1734-1750. doi: 10.1111/jeb.14075. Epub 2022 Aug 7.
Sex chromosomes have evolved repeatedly across the tree of life. As they are present in different copy numbers in males and females, they are expected to experience different selection pressures than the autosomes, with consequences including a faster rate of evolution, increased accumulation of sexually antagonistic alleles and the evolution of dosage compensation. Whether these consequences are general or linked to idiosyncrasies of specific taxa is not clear as relatively few taxa have been studied thus far. Here, we use whole-genome sequencing to identify and characterize the evolution of the X chromosome in five species of Timema stick insects with XX:X0 sex determination. The X chromosome had a similar size (approximately 12% of the genome) and gene content across all five species, suggesting that the X chromosome originated prior to the diversification of the genus. Genes on the X showed evidence of relaxed selection (elevated dN/dS) and a slower evolutionary rate (dN + dS) than genes on the autosomes, likely due to sex-biased mutation rates. Genes on the X also showed almost complete dosage compensation in somatic tissues (heads and legs), but dosage compensation was absent in the reproductive tracts. Contrary to prediction, sex-biased genes showed little enrichment on the X, suggesting that the advantage X-linkage provides to the accumulation of sexually antagonistic alleles is weak. Overall, we found the consequences of X-linkage on gene sequences and expression to be similar across Timema species, showing the characteristics of the X chromosome are surprisingly consistent over 30 million years of evolution.
性染色体在生命之树上反复进化。由于它们在雄性和雌性中的存在数量不同,因此预计它们会经历不同于常染色体的选择压力,其后果包括进化速度更快、性拮抗等位基因积累增加以及剂量补偿的进化。这些后果是否普遍存在,或者与特定分类群的特殊性有关尚不清楚,因为迄今为止相对较少的分类群得到了研究。在这里,我们使用全基因组测序来鉴定和描述具有 XX:X0 性别决定的五种 Timema 竹节虫 X 染色体的进化。X 染色体在所有五个物种中的大小(约占基因组的 12%)和基因含量相似,这表明 X 染色体起源于该属的多样化之前。X 染色体上的基因显示出选择放松(升高的 dN/dS)和进化速率较慢(dN+dS)的证据,这可能是由于性偏向突变率所致。X 染色体上的基因在体组织(头部和腿部)中也表现出几乎完全的剂量补偿,但在生殖道中没有剂量补偿。与预测相反,性偏向基因在 X 染色体上的富集很少,这表明 X 连锁对性拮抗等位基因积累的优势较弱。总的来说,我们发现 X 连锁对基因序列和表达的影响在 Timema 物种之间是相似的,这表明 X 染色体的特征在 3000 多万年的进化过程中惊人地一致。