Changing sex for selfish gain: B chromosomes of Lake Malawi cichlid fish

B chromosomes are extra, non-essential chromosomes present in addition to the normal complement of A chromosomes. Many species of cichlid fish in Lake Malawi carry a haploid, female-restricted B chromosome. Here we show that this B chromosome exhibits drive, with an average transmission rate of 70%....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 20213 - 10
Main Authors: Clark, Frances E., Kocher, Thomas D.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 27.12.2019
Nature Publishing Group
Subjects:
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Animals
B chromosome
Chromosomes
Cichlids - genetics
Evolution, Molecular
Female
Females
Genotyping
Haploidy
Humanities and Social Sciences
Lakes
Malawi
Male
Meiosis
Meiotic drive
multidisciplinary
Offspring
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Sex chromosomes
Sex Chromosomes - genetics
Sex Determination Analysis - methods
Sex Determination Processes - genetics
Sex Ratio
Malawi
Lake Malawi
ISSN:2045-2322, 2045-2322
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:B chromosomes are extra, non-essential chromosomes present in addition to the normal complement of A chromosomes. Many species of cichlid fish in Lake Malawi carry a haploid, female-restricted B chromosome. Here we show that this B chromosome exhibits drive, with an average transmission rate of 70%. The offspring of B-transmitting females exhibit a strongly female-biased sex ratio. Genotyping of these offspring reveals the B chromosome carries a female sex determiner that is epistatically dominant to an XY system on linkage group 7. We suggest that this sex determiner evolved to enhance the meiotic drive of the B chromosome. This is some of the first evidence that female meiotic drive can lead to the invasion of new sex chromosomes solely to benefit the driver, and not to compensate for skewed sex ratios.
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ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-019-55774-8