Slcyt, a newly identified sex-linked gene, has recently moved onto the X chromosome in Silene latifolia (Caryophyllaceae).
The sex chromosomes of the plant species Silene latifolia (white campion) are very young (only 5-10 My old), and all 11 X-linked genes so far described have Y-linked homologues. Theory predicts that X chromosomes should accumulate a nonrandom set of genes. However, little is known about the importance of gene movements between the X and the autosomes in plants, or in any very young sex chromosome system. Here, we isolate from cDNA a new gene, Slcyt, on the S. latifolia X, which encodes a cytochrome B protein. We genetically mapped SlCyt and found that it is located approximately 1 cM from the pseudoautosomal region. Genes in this region of the X chromosome have low divergence values from their homologous Y-linked genes, indicating that the X only recently stopped recombining with the Y. Genetic mapping in Silene vulgaris suggests that Slcyt originally belonged to a different linkage group from that of the other S. latifolia X-linked genes. Silene latifolia has no Y-linked homologue of Slcyt, and also no autosomal paralogues seem to exist. Slcyt moved from an autosome to the X very recently, as the Cyt gene is also X linked in Silene dioica, the sister species to S. latifolia, but is probably autosomal in Silene diclinis, implying that a translocation to the X probably occurred after the split between S. diclinis and S. latifolia/S. dioica. Diversity at Slcyt is extremely low (pi(syn) = 0.16%), and we find an excess of high frequency-derived variants and a negative Tajima's D, suggesting that the translocation was driven by selection.
Kaiser
Vera B
VB
Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. v.b.kaiser@ed.ac.uk
Bergero
Roberta
R
Charlesworth
Deborah
D
D001483:Base Sequence; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D032461:Chromosomes, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D005091:Exons / Q000235:genetics; D017343:Genes, Plant; D050172:Genes, X-Linked; D050173:Genes, Y-Linked; D014644:Genetic Variation; D007438:Introns / Q000235:genetics; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D029751:Silene / Q000235:genetics*