Rapid evolution of female-biased genes among four species of Anopheles malaria mosquitoes
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Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Understanding how phenotypic differences between males and females arise from the sex-biased expression of nearly identical genomes can reveal important insights into the biology and evolution of a species. Among Anopheles mosquito species, these phenotypic differences include vectorial capacity, as it is only females that blood feed and thus transmit human malaria. Here, we use RNA-seq data from multiple tissues of four vector species spanning the Anopheles phylogeny to explore the genomic and evolutionary properties of sex-biased genes. We find that, in these mosquitoes, in contrast to what has been found in many other organisms, female-biased genes are more rapidly evolving in sequence, expression, and genic turnover than male-biased genes. Our results suggest that this atypical pattern may be due to the combination of sex-specific life history challenges encountered by females, such as blood feeding. Furthermore, female propensity to mate only once in nature in male swarms likely diminishes sexual selection of post-reproductive traits related to sperm competition among males. We also develop a comparative framework to systematically explore tissue- and sex-specific splicing to document its conservation throughout the genus and identify a set of candidate genes for future functional analyses of sex-specific isoform usage. Finally, our data reveal that the deficit of male-biased genes on the X Chromosomes in Anopheles is a conserved feature in this genus and can be directly attributed to chromosome-wide transcriptional regulation that de-masculinizes the X in male reproductive tissues.
Date Issued
2017-07-26
Online Publication Date
2017-07-26
2017-10-20T13:21:20Z
Date Acceptance
2017-07-18
ISSN
1088-9051
Publisher
COLD SPRING HARBOR LAB PRESS, PUBLICATIONS DEPT
Start Page
1536
End Page
1548
Journal / Book Title
GENOME RESEARCH
Volume
27
Issue
9
Copyright Statement
© 2017 Papa et al. This article, published in Genome Research, is available under
a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International),
as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International),
as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
Source Database
web-of-science
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000408790600007&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Genetics & Heredity
DROSOPHILA-X-CHROMOSOME
HIERARCHICAL CATALOG
MOLECULAR EVOLUTION
POSITIVE SELECTION
EXPRESSION
GAMBIAE
TRANSCRIPTOME
PROTEIN
DEMASCULINIZATION
IDENTIFICATION
06 Biological Sciences
11 Medical And Health Sciences
Bioinformatics
Publication Status
Published