Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

Association of Sly with sex-linked gene amplification during mouse evolution: a side effect of genomic conflict in spermatids?

Ellis, Peter J.I., Bacon, Joanne, Affara, Nabeel A. (2011) Association of Sly with sex-linked gene amplification during mouse evolution: a side effect of genomic conflict in spermatids? Human molecular genetics, 20 (15). pp. 3010-21. ISSN 1460-2083. (doi:10.1093/hmg/ddr204) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:46551)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://hmg.oxfordjournals.org/content/20/15/3010.f...

Abstract

In common with other mammalian sex chromosomes, the mouse sex chromosomes are enriched for genes with male-specific function such as testis genes. However, in mouse there has been an unprecedented expansion of ampliconic sequence containing spermatid-expressed genes. We show via a phylogenetic analysis of gene amplification on the mouse sex chromosomes that multiple families of sex-linked spermatid-expressed genes are highly amplified in Mus musculus subspecies and in two further species from the Palaearctic clade of mouse species. Ampliconic X-linked genes expressed in other cell types showed a different evolutionary trajectory, without the distinctive simultaneous amplification seen in spermatid-expressed genes. The Palaearctic gene amplification occurred concurrently with the appearance of Sly, a Yq-linked regulator of post-meiotic sex chromatin (PMSC) which acts to repress sex chromosome transcription in spermatids. Despite the gene amplification, there was comparatively little effect on transcript abundance, suggesting that the genes in question became amplified in order to overcome Sly-mediated transcriptional repression and maintain steady expression levels in spermatids. Together with the known sex-ratio effects of Yq/Sly deficiency, our results suggest that Sly is involved in a genomic conflict with one or more X-linked sex-ratio distorter genes. The recent evolution of the novel PMSC regulator Sly in mouse lineages has significant implications for the use of mouse-model systems in investigating sex chromosome dynamics in spermatids.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1093/hmg/ddr204
Subjects: Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology
Q Science > QH Natural history > QH426 Genetics
Q Science > QP Physiology (Living systems) > QP506 Molecular biology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Natural Sciences > Biosciences
Depositing User: Peter Ellis
Date Deposited: 19 Jan 2015 17:35 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Mar 2023 11:33 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/46551 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.