title: Conservation of sex chromosomes in lacertid lizards.
abstract: Sex chromosomes are believed to be stable in endotherms, but young and evolutionary unstable in most ectothermic vertebrates. Within lacertids, the widely radiated lizard group, sex chromosomes have been reported to vary in morphology and heterochromatinization, which may suggest turnovers during the evolution of the group. We compared the partial gene content of the Z-specific part of sex chromosomes across major lineages of lacertids and discovered a strong evolutionary stability of sex chromosomes. We can conclude that the common ancestor of lacertids, living around 70 million years ago (Mya), already had the same highly differentiated sex chromosomes. Molecular data demonstrating an evolutionary conservation of sex chromosomes have also been documented for iguanas and caenophidian snakes. It seems that differences in the evolutionary conservation of sex chromosomes in vertebrates do not reflect the distinction between endotherms and ectotherms, but rather between amniotes and anamniotes, or generally, the differences in the life history of particular lineages.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Viničná 7, 128 44, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Michail
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rovatsos
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Viničná 7, 128 44, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jasna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vukić
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Viničná 7, 128 44, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Altmanová
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Viničná 7, 128 44, Prague, Czech Republic.|Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Liběchov, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Johnson Pokorná
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, National Museum, Václavské nám. 68, 115 79, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jiří
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Moravec
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Viničná 7, 128 44, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Lukáš
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kratochvíl
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D005260:Female; D018628:Gene Dosage; D008116:Lizards / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D012730:Sex Chromosomes / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: lizards; molecular sexing; reptiles; sex chromosomes