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Research article2012Peer reviewedOpen access

W chromosome expression responds to female-specific selection

Moghadam, Hooman K.; Pointer, Marie A.; Wright, Alison E.; Berlin Kolm, Sofia; Mank, Judith E.

Abstract

The W chromosome is predicted to be subject to strong female-specific selection stemming from its female-limited inheritance and therefore should play an important role in female fitness traits. However, the overall importance of directional selection in shaping the W chromosome is unknown because of the powerful degradative forces that act to decay the nonrecombining sections of the genome. Here we greatly expand the number of known W-linked genes and assess the expression of the W chromosome after >100 generations of different female-specific selection regimens in different breeds of chicken and in the wild ancestor, the Red Jungle Fowl. Our results indicate that female-specific selection has a significant effect on W chromosome gene-expression patterns, with a strong convergent pattern of up-regulation associated with increased female-specific selection. Many of the transcriptional changes in the female-selected breeds are the product of positive selection, suggesting that selection is an important force in shaping the evolution of gene expression on the W chromosome, a finding consistent with both the importance of the W chromosome in female fertility and the haploid nature of the W. Taken together, these data provide evidence for the importance of the sex-limited chromosome in a female heterogametic species and show that sex specific selection can act to preserve sex-limited chromosomes from degrading forces.

Keywords

experimental evolution; female heterogamety; sex chromosomes; Y chromosome; gene expression evolution

Published in

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
2012, volume: 109, number: 21, pages: 8207-8211
Publisher: NATL ACAD SCIENCES

SLU Authors

UKÄ Subject classification

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Plant Biotechnology

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1202721109

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/60084