Genomic identification and characterization of the pseudoautosomal region in highly differentiated avian sex chromosomes

Linnéa Smeds, Takeshi Kawakami, Reto Burri, Paulina Bolivar, Arild Husby, Anna Qvarnström, Severin Uebbing and Hans Ellegren ()
Additional contact information
Linnéa Smeds: Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University
Takeshi Kawakami: Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University
Reto Burri: Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University
Paulina Bolivar: Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University
Arild Husby: Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University
Anna Qvarnström: Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University
Severin Uebbing: Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University
Hans Ellegren: Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University

Nature Communications, 2014, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract The molecular characteristics of the pseudoautosomal region (PAR) of sex chromosomes remain elusive. Despite significant genome-sequencing efforts, the PAR of highly differentiated avian sex chromosomes remains to be identified. Here we use linkage analysis together with whole-genome re-sequencing to uncover the 630-kb PAR of an ecological model species, the collared flycatcher. The PAR contains 22 protein-coding genes and is GC rich. The genetic length is 64 cM in female meiosis, consistent with an obligate crossing-over event. Recombination is concentrated to a hotspot region, with an extreme rate of >700 cM/Mb in a 67-kb segment. We find no signatures of sexual antagonism and propose that sexual antagonism may have limited influence on PAR sequences when sex chromosomes are nearly fully differentiated and when a recombination hotspot region is located close to the PAR boundary. Our results demonstrate that a very small PAR suffices to ensure homologous recombination and proper segregation of sex chromosomes during meiosis.

Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms6448 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:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms6448

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

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6448

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 ().