Genomic basis of Y-linked dwarfism in cichlids pursuing alternative reproductive tactics.

Singh, Pooja; Taborsky, Michael; Peichel, Catherine L; Sturmbauer, Christian (2023). Genomic basis of Y-linked dwarfism in cichlids pursuing alternative reproductive tactics. Molecular ecology, 32(7), pp. 1592-1607. Wiley 10.1111/mec.16839

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Sexually antagonistic selection, which favours different optimums in males and females, is predicted to play an important role in the evolution of sex chromosomes. Body size is a sexually antagonistic trait in the shell-brooding cichlid fish Lamprologous callipterus as 'bourgeois' males must be large enough to carry empty snail shells to build nests whereas females must be small enough to fit into shells for breeding. In this species, there is also a second male morph: smaller 'dwarf' males employ an alternative reproductive strategy by wriggling past spawning females into shells to fertilise eggs. L. callipterus male morphology is passed strictly from father to son, suggesting Y-linkage. However, sex chromosomes had not been previously identified in this species, and the genomic basis of size dimorphism was unknown. Here we used whole-genome sequencing to identify a 2.4 Mb sex-linked region on scaffold_23 with reduced coverage and SNP density in both male morphs compared to females. Within this sex region, distinct Y-haplotypes delineate the two male morphs, and candidate genes for body size (GHRHR, a known dwarfism gene) and sex determination (ADCYAP1R1) are in high linkage disequilibrium (LD). Because differences in body size between females and males are under strong selection in L. callipterus, we hypothesise that sexual antagonism over body size initiated early events in sex chromosome evolution, followed by Y divergence to give rise to bourgeois and dwarf male reproductive strategies. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that sexually antagonistic traits should be linked to young sex chromosomes.

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