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Sex chromosome evolution in ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii)
Pavlica, Tomáš ; Sember, Alexandr (advisor) ; Knytl, Martin (referee)
Ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii) possess strikingly diverse sex sex differentiation strategies (including gonochorism, unisexuality and several types of hermaphroditism) and mechanisms of sex determination (both environmental and genetic), including frequent turnovers between abovementioned strategies and mechanisms. Although exhibiting remarkable diversity of sex determination mechanisms, only about 5% of analyzed teleost species possess cytologically recognizable (i.e. heteromorphic) sex chromosomes. Still, nine different male- or female- heterogametic sex chromosome systems at various stages of differentiation have been described along with high rate of inter- and intraspecific variability. Given that early sex chromosome evolution is best studied in evolutionarily young nascent sex chromosomes, ray- finned fishes and especially the teleost lineage (Teleostei) represent vital model group for these investigations offering new insights into the evolution of these rapidly evolving regions of vertebrate genomes. Moreover, handful of studies available so far has provided evidence for a role of emerging sex chromosomes and their turnover in processes such as ecologial adaptation, speciation or genomic conflict. Besides cytogenetic studies, which had a major impact on our current knowledge about fish...
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Evolution of sex determination and sex chromosomes in snakes
Charvát, Tomáš ; Kratochvíl, Lukáš (advisor) ; Šmíd, Jiří (referee)
Snakes form with almost 3700 described species more than one third of all squamate reptiles. The vast majority of snake species belong to the group Caenophidia, which is the best explored group of snakes for sex chromosomes. In contrast, sex chromosomes of the two other groups of snakes - Scolecophidia and Henophidia have so far been paid little attention. All snakes studied so far possess genotypic sex determination. Representatives of all Caenophidian families were observed with a female heterogamety sex determination system (ZZ/ZW) and it was widely accepted that this system was common to all snakes. This claim was recently refuted when a male heterogamety (XX/XY) was confirmed in a python (Python bivittatus) and a boa (Boa imperator), two representatives of Henophidia. In Henophidia, besides the XX/XY system, the ZZ/ZW system was reported in the only known representative of this group with heteromorphic sex chromosomes - A. sp. cf. dumerili. Sex chromosomes or sex determination systems are unknown in Scolecophidia. Caenophidian heteromorphic sex chromosomes have enabled the study of the phenomena associated with the gradual differentiation of sex chromosomes. These include W chromosome degeneration, the accumulation of repetitive elements, the fast Z phenomena, gene dosage compensation, and...
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