Posted by Erik Svensson
After field work and summer break it is time to start up this autumn's lab-meetings again. And what could be more interesting than an article about the remarkable diversity and evolution of sex determination systems? A recently published essay in the journal PLoS Biology, summarizes the current knowledge and state-of-the-art of research in this area. It should hopefully be an interesting read. Below, I attach the Abstract and a link to the paper, which is Open Access and downloadable. The figure above give you a taster about the content. Enjoy!
When: Tuesday, August 12 2014, 10.30
Where: "Argumentet", 2nd floor, Ecology Building.
Sex Determination: Why So Many Ways of Doing It?
Doris Bachtrog Judith E. Mank, Catherine L. Peichel, Mark Kirkpatrick, Sarah P. Otto, Tia-Lynn Ashman, Matthew W. Hahn, Jun Kitano,Itay Mayrose, Ray Ming, Nicolas Perrin, Laura Ross, Nicole Valenzuela, Jana C. Vamosi, The Tree of Sex Consortium
Published: July 01, 2014DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001899
Abstract
Sexual reproduction is an ancient feature of life on earth, and the familiar X and Y chromosomes in humans and other model species have led to the impression that sex determination mechanisms are old and conserved. In fact, males and females are determined by diverse mechanisms that evolve rapidly in many taxa. Yet this diversity in primary sex-determining signals is coupled with conserved molecular pathways that trigger male or female development. Conflicting selection on different parts of the genome and on the two sexes may drive many of these transitions, but few systems with rapid turnover of sex determination mechanisms have been rigorously studied. Here we survey our current understanding of how and why sex determination evolves in animals and plants and identify important gaps in our knowledge that present exciting research opportunities to characterize the evolutionary forces and molecular pathways underlying the evolution of sex determination.
No comments:
Post a Comment