Genetics, Vol. 179, 1129-1133, June 2008, Copyright © 2008
doi:10.1534/genetics.107.085670

Independent Origin of Sex Chromosomes in Two Species of the Genus Silene

Martina Mrackova*, Michael Nicolas{dagger}, Roman Hobza*, Ioan Negrutiu{dagger}, Françoise Monéger{dagger}, Alexander Widmer{ddagger}, Boris Vyskot* and Bohuslav Janousek*,1

* Laboratory of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 612 65 Brno, Czech Republic, {dagger} CNRS-INRA-ENSL-UCBL Laboratoire Reproduction et Développement des Plantes, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 69364 Lyon, France and {ddagger} Plant Ecological Genetics, Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland

1 Corresponding author: Laboratory of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Kralovopolska 135, CZ-612 65 Brno, Czech Republic.
E-mail: janousek{at}ibp.cz

Here we introduce a new model species, Silene colpophylla, that could facilitate research of sex chromosome evolution and sex-determining systems. This species is related to the well-established dioecious plant model Silene latifolia. Our results show that S. colpophylla is, similarly to S. latifolia, a male heterogametic species, but its sex chromosomes have evolved from a different pair of autosomes than in S. latifolia. The results of our phylogenetic study and mapping of homologs of S. latifolia X-linked genes indicate that the sex determination system in S. colpophylla evolved independently from that in S. latifolia. We assert that this model species pair will make it possible to study two independent patterns of sex chromosome evolution in related species.


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Genetics 2008 179: NP. [Full Text]