title: Sex determination: why so many ways of doing it?
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.
authors.affiliation: University of California, Berkeley, Department of Integrative Biology, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Doris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bachtrog
authors.affiliation: University College London, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Judith E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Mank
authors.affiliation: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Divisions of Human Biology and Basic Sciences, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
authors.forename: Catherine L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Peichel
authors.affiliation: University of Texas, Department of Integrative Biology, Austin, Texas, United States of America.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kirkpatrick
authors.affiliation: University of British Columbia, Department of Zoology, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Sarah P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Otto
authors.affiliation: University of Pittsburgh, Department of Biological Sciences, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Tia-Lynn
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Ashman
authors.affiliation: Indiana University, Department of Biology, Bloomington Indiana, United States of America.
authors.forename: Matthew W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Hahn
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Genetics, Ecological Genetics Laboratory, Mishima, Shizuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kitano
authors.affiliation: Tel Aviv University, Department of Molecular Biology and Ecology of Plants, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Itay
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mayrose
authors.affiliation: University of Illinois, Department of Plant Biology, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Ray
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ming
authors.affiliation: University of Lausanne, Department of Ecology and Evolution, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Perrin
authors.affiliation: University of Oxford, Department of Zoology, Oxford, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.affiliation: Iowa State University, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, Ames, Iowa, United States of America.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Valenzuela
authors.affiliation: University of Calgary, Department of Biological Sciences, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Jana C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Vamosi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005260:Female; D057850:Hermaphroditic Organisms / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012730:Sex Chromosomes / Q000502:physiology*; D019849:Sex Determination Processes; D014960:X Chromosome / Q000502:physiology; D014998:Y Chromosome / Q000502:physiology