Parallel Evolution of Two dmrt1-Derived Genes, dmy and dm-W, for Vertebrate Sex Determination.

Animal sex-determining genes, which bifurcate for female and male development, are diversified even among closely related species. Most of these genes emerged independently from various sex-related genes during species diversity as neofunctionalization-type genes. However, the common mechanisms of this divergent evolution remain poorly understood. Here, we compared the molecular evolution of two sex-determining genes, the medaka dmy and the clawed frog dm-W, which independently evolved from the duplication of the transcription factor-encoding masculinization gene dmrt1. Interestingly, we detected parallel amino acid substitutions, from serine (S) to threonine (T), on the DNA-binding domains of both ancestral DMY and DM-W, resulting from positive selection. Two types of DNA-protein binding experiments and a luciferase reporter assay demonstrated that these S-T substitutions could strengthen the DNA-binding abilities and enhance the transcriptional regulation function. These findings suggest that the parallel S-T substitutions may have contributed to the establishment of dmy and dm-W as sex-determining genes. Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Citation

Yusaku Ogita, Shuuji Mawaribuchi, Kei Nakasako, Kei Tamura, Masaru Matsuda, Takafumi Katsumura, Hiroki Oota, Go Watanabe, Shigetaka Yoneda, Nobuhiko Takamatsu, Michihiko Ito. Parallel Evolution of Two dmrt1-Derived Genes, dmy and dm-W, for Vertebrate Sex Determination. iScience. 2020 Jan 24;23(1):100757

PMID: 31884166

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