Rapid gene content turnover on the germline-restricted chromosome in songbirds

Stephen A. Schlebusch (), Jakub Rídl, Manon Poignet, Francisco J. Ruiz-Ruano, Jiří Reif, Petr Pajer, Jan Pačes, Tomáš Albrecht, Alexander Suh and Radka Reifová ()
Additional contact information
Stephen A. Schlebusch: Charles University
Jakub Rídl: Charles University
Manon Poignet: Charles University
Francisco J. Ruiz-Ruano: University of East Anglia
Jiří Reif: Charles University
Petr Pajer: Military Medical Agency, Tychonova 1
Jan Pačes: Czech Academy of Sciences
Tomáš Albrecht: Charles University
Alexander Suh: University of East Anglia
Radka Reifová: Charles University

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract The germline-restricted chromosome (GRC) of songbirds represents a taxonomically widespread example of programmed DNA elimination. Despite its apparent indispensability, we still know very little about the GRC’s genetic composition, function, and evolutionary significance. Here we assemble the GRC in two closely related species, the common and thrush nightingale. In total we identify 192 genes across the two GRCs, with many of them present in multiple copies. Interestingly, the GRC appears to be under little selective pressure, with the genetic content differing dramatically between the two species and many GRC genes appearing to be pseudogenized fragments. Only one gene, cpeb1, has a complete coding region in all examined individuals of the two species and shows no copy number variation. The acquisition of this gene by the GRC corresponds with the earliest estimates of the GRC origin, making it a good candidate for the functional indispensability of the GRC in songbirds.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-40308-8 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-40308-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40308-8

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().