The Duplicated Y-specificamhyGene Is Conserved and Linked to Maleness in Silversides of the GenusOdontesthes

HATTORI, R.S.; SOMOZA, G.M.; FERNANDINO, J.I.; COLAUTTI, D.C.; MIYOSHI, K.; GONG, Z. ; YAMAMOTO, Y.; STRÜSSMANN, C.A.

Genes

MDPI

Año: 2019 vol. 10 p. 1 - 10

2073-4425

Abstract:Sex-determining genes have been successively isolated in several teleosts. InOdontesthes hatcheriandO. bonariensis, the amhygene has been identified as a master sex-determining gene. However, whether this gene is conserved along related species is still unknown. In this study, the presence ofamhyand its association with phenotypic sex was analyzed in 10 species ofOdontesthes genus. The primer sets fromO. hatcherithat amplify bothamhssuccessfully generated fragments that correspond toamhaandamhyin all species. The full sequences ofamhyandamhaisolated for four key species revealed higher identity values among presumptiveamhy, including the 0.5 Kbp insertion in the third intron andamhy-specific insertions/deletions.Amhawas present in all specimens, regardless of species and sex, whereas amhywas amplified in most but not all phenotypic males. Complete association betweenamhy-homologue with maleness was found inO. argentinensis, O. incisa, O. mauleanum, O. perugiae, O. piquava, O. regia,andO. smitti,whereasO. humensis, O. mirinensis, and O. nigricansshowed varied degrees of phenotypic/genotypic sex mismatch. The conservation of amhygene inOdontesthesprovide an interesting framework to study the evolution and the ecological interactions of genotypic and environmental sex determination in this group.