Burton Sarah

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Burton
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Sarah
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Author: Cauret, Caroline M. S. ×

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  • Article
    Functional dissection and assembly of a small, newly evolved, W chromosome-specific genomic region of the African clawed frog Xenopus laevis
    (Public Library of Science, 2023-10-08) Cauret, Caroline M. S. ; Jordan, Danielle C. ; Kukoly, Lindsey M. ; Burton, Sarah R. ; Anele, Emmanuela U. ; Kwiecien, Jacek M. ; Gansauge, Marie-Theres ; Senthillmohan, Sinthu ; Greenbaum, Eli ; Meyer, Matthias ; Horb, Marko E. ; Evans, Ben J.
    Genetic triggers for sex determination are frequently co-inherited with other linked genes that may also influence one or more sex-specific phenotypes. To better understand how sex-limited regions evolve and function, we studied a small W chromosome-specific region of the frog Xenopus laevis that contains only three genes (dm-w, scan-w, ccdc69-w) and that drives female differentiation. Using gene editing, we found that the sex-determining function of this region requires dm-w but that scan-w and ccdc69-w are not essential for viability, female development, or fertility. Analysis of mesonephros+gonad transcriptomes during sexual differentiation illustrates masculinization of the dm-w knockout transcriptome, and identifies mostly non-overlapping sets of differentially expressed genes in separate knockout lines for each of these three W-specific gene compared to wildtype sisters. Capture sequencing of almost all Xenopus species and PCR surveys indicate that the female-determining function of dm-w is present in only a subset of species that carry this gene. These findings map out a dynamic evolutionary history of a newly evolved W chromosome-specific genomic region, whose components have distinctive functions that frequently degraded during Xenopus diversification, and evidence the evolutionary consequences of recombination suppression.