TY - JOUR
T1 - Essential and recurrent roles for hairpin RNAs in silencing de novo sex chromosome conflict in Drosophila simulans
AU - Vedanayagam, Jeffrey
AU - Herbette, Marion
AU - Mudgett, Holly
AU - Lin, Ching Jung
AU - Lai, Chun Ming
AU - McDonough-Goldstein, Caitlin
AU - Dorus, Stephen
AU - Loppin, Benjamin
AU - Meiklejohn, Colin
AU - Dubruille, Raphaëlle
AU - Lai, Eric C.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Vedanayagam et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2023/6
Y1 - 2023/6
N2 - AU Meiotic: Pleaseconfirmthatallheadinglevelsarerepresentedcorrectly drive loci distort the normally equal segregation of alleles, : which benefits their own transmission even in the face of severe fitness costs to their host organism. However, relatively little is known about the molecular identity of meiotic drivers, their strategies of action, and mechanisms that can suppress their activity. Here, we present data from the fruitfly Drosophila simulans that address these questions. We show that a family of de novo, protamine-derived X-linked selfish genes (the Dox gene family) is silenced by a pair of newly emerged hairpin RNA (hpRNA) small interfering RNA (siRNA)-class loci, Nmy and Tmy. In the w[XD1] genetic background, knockout of nmy derepresses Dox and MDox in testes and depletes male progeny, whereas knockout of tmy causes misexpression of PDox genes and renders males sterile. Importantly, genetic interactions between nmy and tmy mutant alleles reveal that Tmy also specifically maintains male progeny for normal sex ratio. We show the Dox loci are functionally polymorphic within D. simulans, such that both nmy-associated sex ratio bias and tmy-associated sterility can be rescued by wild-type X chromosomes bearing natural deletions in different Dox family genes. Finally, using tagged transgenes of Dox and PDox2, we provide the first experimental evidence Dox family genes encode proteins that are strongly derepressed in cognate hpRNA mutants. Altogether, these studies support a model in which protamine-derived drivers and hpRNA suppressors drive repeated cycles of sex chromosome conflict and resolution that shape genome evolution and the genetic control of male gametogenesis.
AB - AU Meiotic: Pleaseconfirmthatallheadinglevelsarerepresentedcorrectly drive loci distort the normally equal segregation of alleles, : which benefits their own transmission even in the face of severe fitness costs to their host organism. However, relatively little is known about the molecular identity of meiotic drivers, their strategies of action, and mechanisms that can suppress their activity. Here, we present data from the fruitfly Drosophila simulans that address these questions. We show that a family of de novo, protamine-derived X-linked selfish genes (the Dox gene family) is silenced by a pair of newly emerged hairpin RNA (hpRNA) small interfering RNA (siRNA)-class loci, Nmy and Tmy. In the w[XD1] genetic background, knockout of nmy derepresses Dox and MDox in testes and depletes male progeny, whereas knockout of tmy causes misexpression of PDox genes and renders males sterile. Importantly, genetic interactions between nmy and tmy mutant alleles reveal that Tmy also specifically maintains male progeny for normal sex ratio. We show the Dox loci are functionally polymorphic within D. simulans, such that both nmy-associated sex ratio bias and tmy-associated sterility can be rescued by wild-type X chromosomes bearing natural deletions in different Dox family genes. Finally, using tagged transgenes of Dox and PDox2, we provide the first experimental evidence Dox family genes encode proteins that are strongly derepressed in cognate hpRNA mutants. Altogether, these studies support a model in which protamine-derived drivers and hpRNA suppressors drive repeated cycles of sex chromosome conflict and resolution that shape genome evolution and the genetic control of male gametogenesis.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002136
DO - 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002136
M3 - Article
C2 - 37289846
AN - SCOPUS:85164053020
SN - 1544-9173
VL - 21
JO - PLoS Biology
JF - PLoS Biology
IS - 6 June
M1 - e3002136
ER -