Evolutionary analysis of the female-specific avian W chromosome

Linnéa Smeds, Vera Warmuth, Paulina Bolivar, Severin Uebbing, Reto Burri, Alexander Suh, Alexander Nater, Stanislav Bureš, Laszlo Z. Garamszegi, Silje Hogner, Juan Moreno, Anna Qvarnström, Milan Ružić, Stein-Are Sæther, Glenn-Peter Sætre, Janos Török and Hans Ellegren ()
Additional contact information
Linnéa Smeds: Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University
Vera Warmuth: Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University
Paulina Bolivar: Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University
Severin Uebbing: Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University
Reto Burri: Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University
Alexander Suh: Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University
Alexander Nater: Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University
Stanislav Bureš: Laboratory of Ornithology, Palacky University
Laszlo Z. Garamszegi: Estación Biológica de Doñana-CSIC
Silje Hogner: Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, University of Oslo
Juan Moreno: Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales-CSIC
Anna Qvarnström: Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University
Milan Ružić: Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia
Stein-Are Sæther: Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, University of Oslo
Glenn-Peter Sætre: Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, University of Oslo
Janos Török: Behavioural Ecology Group, Eötvös Loránd University
Hans Ellegren: Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract The typically repetitive nature of the sex-limited chromosome means that it is often excluded from or poorly covered in genome assemblies, hindering studies of evolutionary and population genomic processes in non-recombining chromosomes. Here, we present a draft assembly of the non-recombining region of the collared flycatcher W chromosome, containing 46 genes without evidence of female-specific functional differentiation. Survival of genes during W chromosome degeneration has been highly non-random and expression data suggest that this can be attributed to selection for maintaining gene dose and ancestral expression levels of essential genes. Re-sequencing of large population samples revealed dramatically reduced levels of within-species diversity and elevated rates of between-species differentiation (lineage sorting), consistent with low effective population size. Concordance between W chromosome and mitochondrial DNA phylogenetic trees demonstrates evolutionary stable matrilineal inheritance of this nuclear–cytonuclear pair of chromosomes. Our results show both commonalities and differences between W chromosome and Y chromosome evolution.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms8330 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:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms8330

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

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8330

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 ().