title: Sex chromosome turnover contributes to genomic divergence between incipient stickleback species.
abstract: Sex chromosomes turn over rapidly in some taxonomic groups, where closely related species have different sex chromosomes. Although there are many examples of sex chromosome turnover, we know little about the functional roles of sex chromosome turnover in phenotypic diversification and genomic evolution. The sympatric pair of Japanese threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) provides an excellent system to address these questions: the Japan Sea species has a neo-sex chromosome system resulting from a fusion between an ancestral Y chromosome and an autosome, while the sympatric Pacific Ocean species has a simple XY sex chromosome system. Furthermore, previous quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping demonstrated that the Japan Sea neo-X chromosome contributes to phenotypic divergence and reproductive isolation between these sympatric species. To investigate the genomic basis for the accumulation of genes important for speciation on the neo-X chromosome, we conducted whole genome sequencing of males and females of both the Japan Sea and the Pacific Ocean species. No substantial degeneration has yet occurred on the neo-Y chromosome, but the nucleotide sequence of the neo-X and the neo-Y has started to diverge, particularly at regions near the fusion. The neo-sex chromosomes also harbor an excess of genes with sex-biased expression. Furthermore, genes on the neo-X chromosome showed higher non-synonymous substitution rates than autosomal genes in the Japan Sea lineage. Genomic regions of higher sequence divergence between species, genes with divergent expression between species, and QTL for inter-species phenotypic differences were found not only at the regions near the fusion site, but also at other regions along the neo-X chromosome. Neo-sex chromosomes can therefore accumulate substitutions causing species differences even in the absence of substantial neo-Y degeneration.
authors.affiliation: Ecological Genetics Laboratory, National Institute of Genetics, Shizuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Kohta
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.affiliation: Division of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Miyagi, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Makino
authors.affiliation: NIBB Core Research Facilities, National Institute for Basic Biology, Myodaiji, Okazaki, Japan.
authors.forename: Katsushi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.affiliation: NIBB Core Research Facilities, National Institute for Basic Biology, Myodaiji, Okazaki, Japan; School of Life Science, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Okazaki, Japan.
authors.forename: Shuji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shigenobu
authors.affiliation: School of Life Science, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Okazaki, Japan; Division of Evolutionary Biology, National Institute for Basic Biology, Myodaiji, Okazaki, Japan.
authors.forename: Mitsuyasu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hasebe
authors.affiliation: Division of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Miyagi, Japan.
authors.forename: Masakado
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kawata
authors.affiliation: Biological Laboratories, Gifu-keizai-University, Gifu, Japan.
authors.forename: Manabu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kume
authors.affiliation: Biological Laboratories, Gifu-keizai-University, Gifu, Japan.
authors.forename: Seiichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.affiliation: Divisions of Human Biology and Basic Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
authors.forename: Catherine L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Peichel
authors.affiliation: Comparative Genomics Laboratory, National Institute of Genetics, Shizuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Toyoda
authors.affiliation: Comparative Genomics Laboratory, National Institute of Genetics, Shizuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Asao
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fujiyama
authors.affiliation: Ecological Genetics Laboratory, National Institute of Genetics, Shizuoka, Japan; PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Saitama, Japan.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kitano
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci / Q000235:genetics; D060047:Reproductive Isolation; D023701:Smegmamorpha / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D014960:X Chromosome / Q000235:genetics*; D014998:Y Chromosome / Q000235:genetics*